The Music In Our Hearts
by MusicalDaydream
Summary: There's something called passion that comes with music... when Kairi strives to reach her dreams of playing the cello, a strong surge of passion is what came with it... [SoraxKairi] [complete]
1. Prologue

Title: The Music In our Hearts

A/N: Oh, wow. It's been about four months since I've started this fic, and I've finished it! Don't ask why I didn't post them up chapter-by-chapter... it was a personal thing.

Well, since this is the Prologue, I'm gonna add a few side notes here to keep confusion from coming.

The story is in an AU setting in a group of islands near Long Island, New York. They're still considered part of New York state, because well... you'll see. If you live in New York or are familiar with state exams you'll see later.

Yes, this is a SoraXKairi fic, but not completely hardcore fluff. It's more of a... well, if it was a threesome pairing, it would be like SoraXMusicXKairi. No, Music is not a character, I mean music itself. That's how big music is focused on in this story.

Also- about the side pairings. Yes, there are many implied pairings in here, but I leave it up to you to decide what happens at the end in your own head. Sorry, I can't write couple endings for ALL of them, plus I'd be arguing with myself on who would go with who. If you really want a list of implied pairings, here they are: SelphieXTidus, YunaXTidus, YuffieXSquall, SquallXRinoa, NamineXRiku, NamineXRoxas... see the contradiction? lol. Well, there is also a sidestory to this fic, but that won't be coming until after Chapter 11: Falling.

About updating: I will try to consistently update, depending on how much time I have for editing & posting. Because my whole story is written. Really. 

Well, that was a really long Author's Note. Enjoy the fic!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Sorry.

Prologue

"Kairi, let's go! We don't have all day, and the concert's going to start soon!"

"Mommy, why do we have to go? I don't want to!" A 5-year-old Kairi screamed, ready to throw a tantrum.

"I've told you before, it's a Christmas benefit concert. We have to go!" The exaspirated mother picked up the little redhead, and brought her out to the car. "Now we're going, whether you like it or not."

Kairi started to cry. After all, she just wanted to stay at home and play with her dolls- was that too much to ask for? But, apparently, her parents thought otherwise- they insisted that she come to the Christmas benefit concert, since they had already bought tickets.

When her parents ignored her sobs, she just sulked the rest of the car ride, sucking her thumb and glaring out the window at the cars passing by.

"Kairi, we're here. Isn't the concert hall so pretty?" her mom asked, trying to make the little girl a bit more happy. She saw that Kairi was about to turn away from the hall, so she gently pushed her in the direction that she was to go.

She looked up and saw thousand of goregous Christmas lights, decorating the hall. There were more colors than she could ever imagine- yellow, pink, red, green, blue... and all of the other colors that a little five year old could name. 

"Wow..." she gasped, clearly amazed. "It's so pretty, Mommy."

"Yes, sweetheart... now let's go inside." The mother took Kairi's hand in hers and they walked in. She handed the tickets to the man at the door. Kairi was busy glancing around, her thumb in her mouth. As they walked in with the rest of the crowd, they saw that the inside of the hall was just as fancy as the outside.

Kairi gawked at all of the lights, trying to count them all. Her thumb actually managed to make its way out of her mouth.

"Kairi? The concert's going to start soon. We need to get to our seats." Her mother inturrupted her thoughts with the statement.

Sadly, Kairi sat down in her seat, and waited for the concert to start. Why weren't there any pretty lights in the auditorium? It was so dark... she slumped in her seat and let out a little sigh.

A pianist and a violinist stepped onstage, and the violinist turned to the pianist to tune.

How boring, Kairi thought. I only like the lights here. 

The concert itself was nothing too special, just the same old christmas songs, and the same old glares at the people who tried to sing along off-key. Kairi was bored and tried to get up, but her mother pushed her back into her seat. She soon got tired of this and decided to sit down. 

As Kairi was about to nod off on her mother's shoulder, an announcer came up and spoke through the microphone, halfway jolting her awake. 

"And now, we have our final song, "Silent Night." The booming voice announced.

Kairi looked up lazily, and was completely intrigued by the strange instrument that was brought onstage, what her mother called a cello. It was the perfect shade of brown, in the most perfect shape with the most perfect design... all Kairi could do was stare.

As the cello player set his bow on the string, he played the most beautiful music that Kairi had ever heard in her life. Sure, it was just the plain old silent night... but the way the cello's sound projected was the most amazing sound she had ever heard in her life.

When the song was over, disappointment washed over Kairi's face. She had wanted it to last forever... yet it was only a few minutes before the cello and the cellist disappeared offstage. She was trying to remember the details of the cellist. He had blue eyes, she thought. And brown hair.

"Kairi, sweetie? Did you like the concert?"

She didn't hear her mother's question, but said, "I want to learn how to play the cello, Mommy." And I want to find that man so that he can teach me. Kairi continued in her head.

Right then and there, her mother realized that her daughter had fallen in love with the music that night. She smiled at the child, and hoped that her love wouldn't die, no matter how long she would wait. After all, the parent's finances weren't exactly doing well...

-

A few years past, and now, it was finally time to register for fourth grade orchestra.

"Mom... I've wanted to play the cello forEVER and now you're saying that I can't?" Kairi was upset; this was the chance of a lifetime, so why give it up? She put on her puppy dog face and pouted.

"Kai, I'm really sorry, but we, just don't have the money to rent an instrument. Dad's already trying his hardest JUST to put the food on our table!" She gave her daughter a you-know-better-than-to-ask look, but when she saw the disappointment on the girl's face, she added, "You'll learn to play one day, but just not... today. I really wish that I could let you, but there's some things that we just can't control."

The puppy dog look was obviously not going to work. She hated this- her best friend, Selphie, was signing up so why couldn't she? A few tears formed in Kairi's eyes before she ran off to her room.

-

Days flew by... soon, the days became years, and high school registration was approaching. How funny that five years could fly by so fast.

"C'MON Kairi, you HAVE to take orchestra with me!" Selphie begged with her usual hyper attitude. She hadn't changed since fourth grade, that's for sure.

"Selphie, don't you get it? I'd be YEARS behind you guys! I'd never catch up!"

"Yes, you would. If you really want to learn the cello, now's your last chance!"

Kairi sighed. Of course she still wanted to play; it was her dream, but now, she thought that she might have to give it up. Everyone else started in 4th grade; she didn't want to start now, and embarass herself.

"I don't know. I was thinking of just signing up for art with Namine, anyway." Namine had transferred to their elementary school in fifth grade, and Kairi wasn't sure how they became friends, but she was sure that their friendship wasn't a mistake.

"Aww, Kairi! You're missing your last chance! I'll even help you over the summer! Plus you do have two electives, so you can still take art!"

Kairi couldn't help but crack a small smile. Even though Selphie had held 1st chair violin for the past two years, she was disasterous on the cello. If you ever saw her on the cello, and never on the violin, you would think that she was some wanna-be amature, which she was- in a way. Of course, no one would ever tell Selphie that. It would only unleash a side of her that no one ever wanted to see. 

"Plus, all of the guy cello players are totally adorable!" Selphie squealed.

"You only say that because you like Tidus." Another voice joined Selphie and Kairi in their chat; it was Yuffie. Yuffie had joined them in 7th grade, when she had just moved here, and sat with Selphie during lunch because she was the only person she remembered from orchestra class that day.

"So? Even without Tidus, they're all cute!"

Kairi laughed. It was funny to see Selphie get all worked up over the different cello players, and to hear Yuffie critisize the other violas. Somehow, though, Kairi felt left out. She laughed at their tone of voice, but really didn't understand what was going on. They had so many inside jokes and used so many musical terms.. It was as if they went to a completely different world with each other every day, and then came back just to tell her stories of their adventures. Sure, it was nice, but it wasn't the same as going on the "adventure" with them.

After a bit of thinking, Kairi stated, "I think I'll sign up." She inturrupted Yuffie and Selphie's arguement over how good the basses were. They both turned their heads to her and smiled.

"Ohmygod, you really are? That's so awesome!" Selphie started to bounce around.

"That's great, Kairi!" Yuffie was just as happy as Selphie, considering that they've both been trying to get Kairi to join since the second day of 7th grade.

"Yeah... I guess so." Kairi smiled, and thought, I hope this is worth it. No, she told herself. It WILL be worth it. 


	2. Chapter 1: Learning

A/N: Welcome to Chapter 1. This is still kind of an intro chapter, so yeah, it's still short. Oh, and this fic has implied Student-teacher relationships... so please don't flame me about that. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 1: Learning

"KAIRI! We're going to meet the Destiny High orchestra teacher!" Selphie screamed, waiting for Kairi to come out of her house.

"I'm coming... I'm coming." Kairi stumbled out the door, to see not only Selphie, but Yuffie along with her.

"Let's GO!" Selphie half dragged Kairi as she ran down the street. "We don't have all day, plus, we don't know how long Mr. Leonhart is going to be there!"

Oh yes. It was the first day of their summer, and Kairi, Selphie, and Yuffie were using it to go visit their future orchestra teacher, to get some help to the new cello player. Although they weren't exactly having an ideal "fun" first day of summer, Selphie practically sprinted down to the high school, since she half-worshipped Mr. Leonhart. Wait, make that complete worshiped Mr. Leonhart. Yuffie was jogging along, too, and both of them were dragging along poor Kairi, who just wanted to walk, like a normal person.

"YAY, WE'RE HERE!" Selphie squealed as she ran up to the music/drama building. "Let's go in!"

"Selphie. Calm down... we do NOT want Mr. Leonhart to think we're a bunch of crazy wanna-be orchestra students." Yuffie said, trying to get Selphie out of her hyper state.

"SOOOO? He already knows me from All-state! And he knows my passion for cello players! And he-"

Yuffie cut her off. "Please, Selphie... BREATHE. In and out... in and out... there you go!"

Selphie inhaled and exhaled with Yuffie's words. Kairi just laughed and shook her head.

As Kairi was about to open the door, someone else came out through it. She sweatdropped. "I guess we're not the only ones here."

Selphie didn't hear Kairi, because she was too busy squealing over the person who came out, a brunette with wild, spikey hair. "OHMIGOD, it's SORA!" She ran over to him as he tried to shrug her off.

"Heh. Yeah, it's me." He ran off, clearly scared by Selphie.

"Who's he?" A confused Kairi asked.

"OHMIGOD you DON'T know who he is? He's like, the best cello player at our school!" Selphie screamed, running around like a maniac as usual. Thank goodness there were no other people around, or else Yuffie and Kairi would be hiding behind the bushes.

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Selphie, I thought you were all for Tidus."

"I AM! But, hello, Sora's a cello player, too!"

"Uh... yeah, let me explain." Yuffie said, seeing the confused look on Kairi's face. "So, you know Selphie's obsession with cellists?" Kairi nodded. "So... yeah, every time you make it known that someone's a cello player, she'll annoy them to death. All of the cellists at school are scared of her, especially the guys."

"AND Sora got accepted into Julliard! He might never come baaaaack!" Selphie wailed, listening to their conversation.

"He's first chair for a reason, Selphie." Yuffie was being rational, as always.

"So why didn't_I_ get accepted into Julliard?"

"Because you wanted to stay here, and you never applied."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that."

Kairi sweatdropped, once again. Sometimes Selphie was just too blonde for her. "Uh, let's go inside, since we didn't come here just to run around the courtyard."

"YEAH! Let's go!" The trio walked inside, down to the orchestra room, to see if it was locked.

Selphie tried to open the door, but the doorhandle refused to budge, as if it was locked. "NOOOOOO... Mr. Leonhart HAS to be here! He said that he would!"

This time, it was Yuffie's turn to sweatdrop. "Selphie, that door is always locked." she said, pointing out to Selphie that she was trying to open the right side of the double doors. Yuffie casually opened the left door, and the three went inside.

"Mr. Leonhart! We're here!" Yuffie yelled accross the room to see if he was in his office.

A tall man with long, dark hair opened his office door, and came out. "Hello, Yuffie, Selphie. I see that you brought your friend here. You're Kairi, right?"

"Yeah," Kairi mumbled, a little intimidated by his demeanor.

He walked over the cello rack, motioning for them to follow. Kairi crept up towards him while Selphie and Yuffie dashed. "Here, let's first see what size fits you. Since you're a little small, I'd think that you'd be a 3/4." Kairi tried not to take offense to what he said. He led her over to the empty orchestra and sat down in a chair, then beckoned for the three girls to do the same. He handed Kairi a cello, and showed her how to hold it. "Now, you try." She did so, and thought, This will be easier than I thought it would be!

"Have you rented or bought a cello yet?" Mr. Leonhart asked, inturrupting Kairi's glory.

Argh, she thought. I haven't talked to Mom about that yet...

"Kairi?"

"Um... no..." What else was she supposed to say?

"Okay, well... I'll be able to rent you a cello for free during school, but at home, you're on your own, okay? If you plan on just playing for school, and if you're willing to practice during school, then it shouldn't be a problem, and you might not have to rent one for home. But, since you're just starting out, I'd suggest you at least rent for the summer, so you don't have to walk here everyday to practice. And I'm not here everyday, either... so, what do you think your plan will be?"

Remembering what her mother said in 4th grade, she realized that if she wanted to rent a cello, it would have to be out of her own pocket. Darn... I'm going to have to put extra hours into work this summer... she thought.

"Um, earth to Kairi? You're spacing out again." Kairi suddenly realized that three pairs of eyes were on her as she was slowly thinking.

"Hm..." Mr. Leonhart thought quickly. "Yuffie, could I talk to you for a moment? Selphie, could you show Kairi how to hold the bow?" Mr. Leonhart led Yuffie out of the room.

"OKAY!" Selphie said in a perky voice. "This is how you hold the bow! You make a little bunny with your hand and you slip it in, and then curve your thumb and hang your pinky over the edge!"

"Um... I'm not sure if I completely got that, Selph."

"Here, I'll show you." Selphie patiently talked while she showed Kairi how to hold the bow.

Kairi copied Selphie's movements, and realized that the bow was heavy, and not easy to keep in her hand in that position. She wound up gripping the bow with all her might, and just letting her fingers slip out of place.

"Whoa, there, Kairi, don't grip it that hard." Mr. Leonhart had come back with his chat with Yuffie. "see, you've got the hold right, but you've just got to relax." He showed her the bow hold again, and when she tried this time, it worked a little bit better.

"So, Kairi. How 'bout you three come here about once a week, at the same time, and we can all practice together. Everyone else already has their music, so I'll give you your part, and work on it with you, after you get the basics covered. "

Kairi nodded, and he continued. "Learning is harder than it looks, Kairi. I'd hate to disappoint you, but when school starts, you're still going to be a little behind. I'm going to put you in the back, so then you can listen to everyone else play while you try to play along. It'll get easier once you get the hang of it, okay?"

She nodded once again, and he finished his little speech. "Chair tests are going to be on the first week. It's kind of sudden, but everyone else has known since the last month of school. I'll excuse you from them, but that means you'll be last chair. Is that okay with you?"

Kairi said yes, and while thinking, Any chair's fine with me, as long as I get to play.

"Okay, then, I have to get going, and so do you three. I'll see you guys sometime next week. I'll be here almost the whole time, but I'd like it if you would come during the afternoon, and that will be the time you come every week, okay? Don't go changing it on me."

Kairi slowly packed up the cello, dragging the fabric case along the floor, and then attempting to gently nudge the cello into it. She slowly dragged it back to the rack, with Yuffie and Selphie's warnings to "be careful with it."

They bid farewells to Mr. Leonhart, and walked out to the street.

"So, Yuffie, what did Mr. Leonhart have to talk about with you?" Kairi asked.

Yuffie blushed, and then said, "He wanted to know if you guys have financial problems or not. Because even though a lot of kids in orchestra do, he really didn't want to be the one to ask... If you did, he wanted me to let you know that he could make an exception for you, and rent a cello out to you for the summer."

"Aww, Yuffie, we all know that Mr. Leonhart told you something else!" Selphie giggled, knowing perfectly well about her friend's "thing" for the teacher.

Yuffie's blush turned redder. "No! That was all! I swear it was!"

"Don't worry, Yuff, we know he likes you too. He acts completely different around you. At All State, he had a straight face the whole time, and was practically speaking in monotone. Plus, you don't always have to be the tough girl." Selphie teased.

Yuffie continued to redden. "SELPHIE!"

"Okay, okay, I think it's time to stop." Kairi entered their arguement. "We've come to my house."

They bid each other farewells as Kairi walked inside.

It's going to be an interesting year, Kairi thought, and let the door slam shut behind her.


	3. Chapter 2: Sora

A/N: Mhm.. chapter 2. No notes this time.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 2: Sora

At 1 o'clock sharp the next Tuesday, Yuffie, Kairi, and Selphie arrived in the Destiny High Orchestra room to meet Mr. Leonhart.

"Hello, girls! I've been wondering when you'd finally come! You're going to come at this time every week, right?" He had a cheerful smile on his face.

Yuffie nodded for the three, and the teacher ushered them inside.

"Yuffie..." he called for her, "did you ask Kairi?"

"Uh, yeah," she answered, slightly blushing. "She said she would love that." She hid her face as she thought of what Selphie had said the week before.

He turned to Kairi. "Okay... you'll be assigned cello number three. Don't forget to take it home tonight to practice."

"Uh... okay." She quietly grabbed the cello and stumbled with it towards a seat, ignoring Selphie's screams. Wait, what was Selphie screaming about anyway?

She finally stopped long enough to listen. "Ohmygod, Kairi, you're not holding it right!"

Up until then, Kairi was not aware that there WAS a specific way to hold a cello in its case, just as long she didn't drop it. "Uh..." she was dumbfounded.

"Here, I'll show you how," Kairi was relieved that her more sane friend was coming to help her. "You grab onto the handle with your right hand, then swing your left arm around the cello's neck and let it rest there. Perfect!"

Kairi then carried the cello like it was her newborn baby. "Heh... I can actually walk now!" She let out a nervous giggle. 

Selphie giggled. "You're going to have to NEED to actually be able to walk with it, Kai. Or else it won't even make it to your house!"

Mr. Leonhart waited patiently for the girls to get out their instruments, and when Yuffie and Selphie where busily warming up on their own, he told Kairi, "Let's get started. So, show me how you hold the bow."

The next two hours were spent vigorously learning. Every few minutes, Kairi would put down her bow in frustration. There were just too many things to think of at once... did she put enough pressure on the string? Was the bow close enough to the bridge? Was her elbow high enough? And, most of all... where her fingers in the right place? The tapes were slightly assuring, but not enough. Besides, Mr. Leonhart hoped that she wouldn't need them by the time school started. And for now, that event seemed awfully close.

In the middle of the lesson, Sora came by with his own cello. It puzzled Kairi on why he did that; the school cellos were already plenty nice! Plus, wouldn't it be a burden to bring it every day to school?

Soon after he arrived, the three friends took a short break. They were chatting a little bit about the pieces, until their conversation was inturrupted by the beautiful notes of a cello, just as beautiful as the one that had played "Silent Night" so many years ago. At first, she thought it was Mr. Leonhart, thinking that a student couldn't produce something so goregous. When she turned around to look, it was Sora. She felt her jaw drop down to the floor.

Yuffie caught her staring. "See, Kairi, we told you he was good."

Selphie, who was confused, randomly burst out, "HEY! I never found out WHY he's not taking this spot in Julliard! I have to ask him!" She was about to run towards him, but her two friends held her back until he finished his piece. THEN they let her go on her rampage, obviously not thinking of the torture that Sora was about to go through.

"OHMYGOD! Sora! You never answered my question last week!"

"...And your question was?" he asked and raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you were going to Julliard!"

"Uh, Selphie, I hate to break it to you, but that's not a question." Yuffie commented from their corner of the room.

"I'm not going because I wanted one more year here." Silence followed, and then Selphie squealed.

"OKAY! Fine by me!" She grinned, and then confused swept her face again. "Hey, where's Tidus?" She usually saw the two practicing together.

He shrugged. "I haven't seen him with eighth grade graduation. Besides, I don't stalk him the way you do." A small smirk played on his lips. She sweatdropped. Shows how much you know about them... she moaned to herself. 

Mr. Leonhart interrupted their joyous "conversation" of Selphie screaming. "Okay, stop the chatting. We're here to practice. Talk on your own time."

Kairi picked up her cello, but couldn't help but steal occasional glances at Sora. Gosh... when am I ever going to get that good? she wondered to herself. Every note that she played after that seemed inferior to Sora's majestic music. She moaned to herself and slumped over her cello.

"Kairi." Mr. Leonhart came over to where she was. "What's distracting you? If it's Sora, please just ignore him. I know that he seems much better than you, but that's just because-"

"It's okay, Mr. Leonhart. I'll try to concentrate harder." She did not want to hear much more about how much better Sora was than her.

Her words were in vain. She was even more distracted by his music. Argh... why must he be so good? she thought. If it wasn't for him... then I'd be doing better!

Sora watched her as her face turned pink in frustration. He wasn't aware that there would be someone new playing the cello this year. But... she was doing okay. At least for a new comer. Most of them didn't even last long enough to get first position down. Plus... she was kind of cute, especially the way that she was getting frustrated with herself. He would like to help her, if he ever got the chance. He smiled, and decided to rest for a few minutes to watch.

Slowly and unaware of the person watching her, Kairi started playing the C major scale. Mr. Leonhart only wanted her to try one octave, since she wouldn't be shifting for at least another month. She hadn't known her notenames too well, but Yuffie gave her a little tutorial on the bass clef before. But then, scales shouldn't be too hard... since they were just one note right after the other.

She was wrong. Her scale didn't sound anything like the Do-Re-Mi-thing she learned in elementary school. It was more like... Do-La-Ti. Or something like that. As in, she was completely out of tune.

Both Mr. Leonhart and Sora saw the frustration in Kairi's eyes, but Mr. Leonhart was the one who waltzed over to calm her down. "It's okay. Don't expect it to be perfect on the first try. You're doing a good job. Just keep it slow, and you'll get it."

Half and hour later, she felt a tap on her shoulder. "I have to leave now, and I'm sure that you guys do, too. It's five."

Kairi looked at Mr. Leonhart in amazement... had it been that long already? "Okay... we'll pack up. I think we're all ready to go." She looked at Sora, who was also packing up and getting ready to leave. When he was done, he gave a small wave and dissappeared through the door. He hadn't said a word to her, and she didn't either... so why'd he wave?

"So, Mr. Leonhart, what shoud I practice for this week?" She shifted her gaze back onto her teacher.

"I want you to keep on trying C Major, then I want you to try D and G. Next week we'll work on the extended fingers that you'll need to play for the sharp notes in A. Also..." he pulled out a music book. "I want you to work on reading your notenames. Try playing this, this, and this song." He checked off three short pieces. "They should be fairly easy, if you know your notenames, and you have your scales down. But- scales are the most important right now, okay?"

Kairi gave a nod, although she didn't quite understand why scales were so important.

"Let's go, Kairi! We'll help you get your cello home since it's kind of a long way to carry it!" Selphie's perky voice rang in her ears.

"Uh, yeah. Okay, let's go!" She felt a bit sad to be leaving the orchestra room, and having to go home and to work.

Work. The worst part of the day. For Kairi, at least. She hated the minimum wage, she hated her co-workers, and most of all, she hated her boss. He was a nosy little man who popped his nose in everyone's business, then, in turn, told everyone what he had found out. Kairi had been lucky to have not been one of his victims yet; but then, she'd only been working here for about two months. 

She worked at a small pretzel shop at the mall- the only place where a 14 year old like her could work. Every day, except for Tuesday, now, she was up at the cramped counter serving the ditzy teenage girls that could afford to shop at Abercrombie day and night.

She just all out hated it. No one else her age had to get a job- Selphie and Yuffie all had their summers and weekends free, unlike her. They all got paid allowance, and didn't need to get jobs to pay for everything until they got a car. And even then, the parents usually paid for the gas.

Nope, Kairi didn't have that luxury. She and her mom, after her parents had divorced, have lived in the same house, on the same street, with the same car. And did she mention they only had one car?

"Kairi! We need a pink lemonade slushie and a sour-cream and onion pretzel! Stop daydreaming back there!"

Oh yes, the wonderful life of working minimum wage.

Money has been tight for Kairi's family as long as she can remember, and now with her dad gone, it was even worse. How on earth am I going to be able to rent a cello once school starts? She wondered. More hours here, I guess. I'll never be able to own my cello at this rate... 

"KAIRI! Did you not hear what I just said?"

"Um... I heard perfectly well, m'am."

"Now get to work before I call out the boss."

She quickly filled the slushie cup and dipped the pretzel in the sour cream and onion powder before handing it to the customer.

"Next." she said, in a bored monotone voice.

And so it went. On and on, from eight AM to four PM.

"Finally. Work is OVER. Gina, I'm leaving!" She called to her nearest co-worker.

She hastily walked home. It was her first day of being able to practice on her own, and she didn't want to lose any time. As she was walking, she passed the music store outside the mall. "Hm... I'll go in. It won't be long anyway."

She pushed through the door and walked in, straight to the rentable cellos, just to take a little look. She shifted sideways to get a look at the ones further away. As she shifted, she ran smack into another person.

"Ohmygod... I am SOOO sorry." She took a quick glance at him. Messy brown hair, bright cobalt eyes... wait, Sora? As in the cello player?

"Hey... I saw you yesterday. In Mr. Leonhart's room. You're Selphie's friend, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." she said, suddenly feeling small and meek. Not knowing what to say, she added, "...you're really good at the cello."

He smiled. "Thanks... if you need help, you can just ask me, you know."

She blushed. Did he realize that she had just started? "Um... no... that's okay. I'm going to go now, bye!" She ran out of the music store, trying to hide her red face.

Sora stared as she ran off.

Kairi looked around nervously as soon as she was a block away from the music store. "Oh god... I must've looked so stupid!" she said to herself. And he has the prettiest eyes, too... I never really saw them yesterday, since they were glued onto his music.

She dashed home to call Selphie.

"Kairi! I am SOOOO happy for you! Cuz Sora is sooo cute and now you're playing the cello too and you'd look so freaking CUTE together!" Kairi could feel Selphie squealing into the phone.

"Geez, Selph... I don't even know if this is going to last... beacuse all I know is that I love his eyes and his cello playing. He could be a jerk inside, for all I know."

"Oh, I feel it! This is going to turn out into something AMAZING! And he's not a jerk, I know he's not, Kairi... Ohmygod, what are you going to do next week when we see him? Because I know that he goes into the orchestra room almost EVERYDAY!"

"Selph, we are not going to do anything. Please don't tell the world about this... especially not him... because what if I'm over him by the time school starts? Then... that would just be... awkward!" 

"Kairi, Kairi, Kairi! You worry too much! I won't tell anyone, I swear!"

"Okay, then... hey, I'm going to go practice now, kay?"

"Yeah, me too, bye!"

Kairi hung up the phone and got out her cello. She took out the bow, and slowly tried C Major. It was a little better, but there was no way that it was good enough... she tried again, and again, until she felt it was right.

She repeated this process with the rest of her excersises, then put her cello away and flopped onto her bed.

Summer soon passed, and very quickly at that. Every week, when Kairi, Yuffie, and Selphie went in to practice, they ran into Sora. Kairi tried to ignore him, but it was completely in vain. She was always relieved to see him go, because then, she'd be able to concentrate. It wasn't because she liked him; of she just liked his eyes! And really, her heart did not go ker-thump the way that it would be if she liked someone. 

She had learned how to tune her instrument, and had been working on vibrato. She was also getting fairly good at shifting, thanks to Mr. Leonhart's help.

Finally, the long awaited first day of school came. 


	4. Chapter 3: First Day Blues

A/N: Chapter 3! Yay! 

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

Chapter 3: First Day Blues

_She was onstage, at the same hall she was at nine years ago... except, this time, shewas the one about to go onstage to perform. She nervously fumbled with the sleeve of her blouse, knowing that her heart might pop out right at that very second. Nervously, she watched the Christmas lights blinks, as it it was to the rhythm of her solo._

_"And now, for out final performance, Silent Night."_

_There was her cue. She carefully brought her cello onstage, and took a deep breath as she put her bow on the string. Then-_

RING! RING! RING!

"No... just a few more minutes," Kairi moaned as she rubbed her eyes. She slowly sat up, feeling half dead, and wobbled to her bathroom.

"Ugh, my hair's a mess... I should've blow dried it last night when Mom reminded me to..."

After yanking a brush through her nest of a hair a few times, she walked over to where she laid her school uniform the night before. Slowly and groggily, she slipped it on, and headed back to the bathroom.

"Yup... the skirts are as short as ever..."

She lazily splashed some water on her face, and then brushed her teeth. After that, she walked over to her new backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She looked around her still-dark room.

"Now, where is my cello?" She have to return it to Mr. Leonhart today. As she looked around in the darkness, she triped over something.

"OWW!" She screeched, then sighed. "What a wonderful first day of high school. My hair's a mess, I trip over my own cello that I'm going have have to part with today and-" she paused to look at the clock. "SHOOT! I've dawdled too long... it's 7! AHH!"

Another figure entered her room. "My, do all teenagers scream like that in the morning?" she asked as she flipped on the lights in Kairi's room. Kairi's mother was obviously not happy to be woken up by screams. When Kairi's answer was to scream that she was blinded, her mother continued, "Nevermind, I'll make you breakfast."

Kairi followed her mother downstairs, embracing her cello. She ate breakfast quickly, and started walking towards the school to meet Yuffie and Selphie.

"KAI-RI!" the loud squeal in her ear made it obvious that it was Selphie. Yuffie was right next to her, trying to calm her down.

"I knew you shouldn't have added that sugar to your cappuccino this morning, don't you think those things are sweet enough?" Knowing that she wouldn't get an answer from the sugar-high girl, she continued, "C'mon, let's go."

They hurried off to school, meeting Namine on the way there. She was craddling her sketchpad in her arms. Selphie peeked over he shoulder to get a look a her newest piece of artwork, a medley of band instruments.

"WOW! You get better everyday, Namine... the art teacher is gonna LOVE YOU!" She danced circles around her shy friend.

"Thanks..." Namine said quietly, and turned her eyes toward the school.

"WHEEEE! I can't wait for Strolling Strings!" Selphie jumped up and down. Strolling Strings, or Strolling, as it was commonly called, was an extra orchestra class that was a bit like marching band, but not as well known.

"Selphie, calm down! We have to get our schedules first." Yuffie dragged her hyper friend down to the group of teachers with huge stacks of sky blue papers. They patiently waited in line as the teachers were swarmed with students. After two years of this process in Junior High, the four figured out that it was easier to wait than to join the others trying to get their schedules first. Soon enough, they recieved their schedules with a "Thank you for NOT half running us over" from the teachers.

"OOH! OOH! We have Math, English, and Science together! And then me and Yuffie and Kairi have orchestra together! And then me and Yuffie have Strolling! And me and Kairi have dance! And..." she stopped to peek over at everyone else's schedules. "Kairi and Namine have art! YAY!" Selphie squealed in delight. Last year, Yuffie had been separated by classes from them, and Selphie was sure to spazz out if it happened again this year.

Silence followed.

"Did I overdo it?" she asked.

"Uh... yeah." Yuffie answered. Namine and Kairi giggled.

DING! DING! DING! went the bell.

"YAY! Time for English."

"...great, I never brought my cello back." Kairi commented, looking at the instrument in her arms.

"C'mon! Let's hurry to the orchestra room so we can drop it off, quick!"

The four trudged through the crowded halls, and fround the orchestra room. Thankfully, the English class was close by, and then they entered.

When they got a glance at the teacher, all they could do was stare. Age scrawled accross the woman's face, with messy white hair sticking every which way. Her skin seemed to sag.

When the girls came in, she looked up from what she was doing, and seemed to moan, in a quiet voice, "Good Morning, ladies."

After the tardy bell had rung and people where seated in whichever desk they chose, she took roll. Then, she stood up to introduce herself.

"I am Mrs. Jonston. And I expect perfection! When we have district exams, I expect you guys to be the ones with the highest scores. My classes have been top-notch ever since I started teaching."

"And when was that?" A male voice popped out from the crowd of students.

"There will be no smart mouths in this class. And if there are-" she looked over at the boy who commented earlier- "they will be whipped by one of my infamous yardsticks." She pulled one out of a pile, and shook it at the boy. "It's been resting all summer, so they're just tingling to hit someone new."

Everyone was silent, including the boy who had commented earlier. The teacher had started to pass out papers, slightly glaring at all of the students.

Selphie let out a depressed sign as the four walked to the courtyard for lunch. "I can't believe they're giving homework on the first day..." she whined.

"It's high school, they're supposed to do that..." Kairi added, but, in her mind, she felt like whining, too. "I'm so glad we all have fourth hour lunch, I'd be so mad if we were separated!"

Kairi and Namine sat down at a table as Selphie and Yuffie went in line to buy lunch. The two at the table always brought lunch because Kairi prefered knowing the ingredients of her food, and Namine was diabetic.

A few minutes later, Selphie and Yuffie returned to the table with plates of food.

"Eww, I thought the food was actually supposed to be GOOD in high school... dammit, I was looking foreward to that!" Yuffie poked around the "orange chicken."

"Heh, told you, Yuff." Kairi giggled as her friend, wincing, tried a bite of the chicken.

Out of nowhere, Selphie started to laugh and wouldn't stop. Her face started to turn pink as she continued to giggle and roll around in her chair.

"Um, Selphie? You okay?" Namine asked, with a worried look on her face. Selphie usually didn't laugh this hard; now her face was turning red and tears were running down her cheeks.

"HEHE! The-hehe-look-hehe-on your-hehe-face-" and then she continued to crack up and choke on the taco that she just took a bite of.

Namine patted Selphie's back. "Calm down, Selphie... people are staring..." she looked around nervously.

"Cough-o-gag-k!" She calmed down, and hacked down the bite of food. Then, she smiled sweetly. To change the subject, she said, "Hey, let's go look for Namine's French class."

"Okay, I am so totally done with this chicken." Yuffie said as she threw it out. "And I am NOT buying lunch for the rest of the year."

"I'm done with my lunch," Namine added.

"Yeah, me too..." Kairi said.

"OKIE DOKIE THEN! LET'S GO!"

Selphie had completely underestimated the size of the elective building. They had been wandering around for at LEAST ten minutes, possibly more. At last, Namine pointed to a door with the number she was looking for, 1352.

"...Okay... here goes," Her hand trembled as she took the handle of the door.

"C'mon, Namine, you can do it! You're so good at French, don't be so shy." Kairi assuringly put her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"...I don't know... this is the only class I have by myself... meaning without you guys..." Namine was extremely shy, and was, well, unsure of herself.

"Hey, Namine, don't worry, you'll make new friends, and plus, it's only 50 minutes out of your day." Yuffie gave her a smile.

"Okay... I can do this." She took a deep breath, turned the handle, and went inside.

The three friends peeked through the door to see Namine speaking with the teacher. "I hope she'll be okay..." Selphie said. "Ohmygod, it's almost time for orchestra! And after there's Science! And then there's strolling! COOL! We go to orchestra and then go BACK! Let's go, guys!" They would have sprinted through the halls if a teacher didn't stop them. Even so, they walked as fast as possible and were completely out of breath once they reached the orchestra room.

Selphie pushed open the door, panting. "We're here!" She screamed, and then gasped for breath. She was answered by silence and four pairs of eyes on her. Those eyes belonging to Sora, Kairi, Yuffie, and Mr. Leonhart. "Ah... nevermind," she said, walking over to the seating chart on the left side of the room. Kairi followed, and looked at the piece of paper as if it had been written in Yiddish.

"How in the heck-"

"I'LL SHOW YOU, KAIRI! See, there's Mr. Leonhart's stand, so you cound how many rows back you are from him and number of seats in!"

Kairi continued to gawk at the little square boxed, then at Selphie. "You honestly expect me to read that?"

"Ha, Kairi, don't worry about that; I'm guess you'll only have to read it about 16 times through high school." Yuffie added. "Your seat is right there." She pointed to a chair far in the back, about four rows back from where Sora was sitting.

"Girls, don't worry about your actual chair. Tests are today, so you probably won't be where you are on the chart." Mr. Leonhart popped out of his office.

"I_ better_ not be where I am on this chart! I'm like, fifth chair!" Selphie exclaimed.

"Who knows, Selph... we don't know how well the kids from the other Junior Highs play." Yuffie realistically tried to calm her spastic friend down.

"B-b-but-" Selphe's protests were cut short by the bell. A flood of kids past through the hall, and more and more came into the orchestra room.

Kairi unpacked quickly, hoping to get a bit more practice in. Although Mrs. Leonhart excused her from chair tests, she wanted to show the rest of the freshmen orchestra that she most definately did NOT suck.

Soon, all of the chairs in the orchestra room were filled, and Mr. Leonhart took his place at the conductor's stand.

"Okat, as you guys SHOULD know, we have chair tests today. So don't get too aquainted with your seat. If you wimp out, then you get last chair."

Selphie giggled as she saw the girl in first chair form a complete look of horror on her face. Heh, heh, yeah, don't get too aquainted... she giggled and thought to herself.

"We'll start with the cellos. you come insdie my office, one by one, and if you're next, you're standing outside my office. Everybody else, you're outside PRACTICING. I don't want to hear a WORD. You're in high school now, you should NOT be reminded of this the way Miss Heartilly did last year and the year before."

Kairi frowned as Mr. Leonhart walked into his office with Sora following. Mr. Leonhart wasn't like this over the summer... she thought. He always smiled, and was never this grouchy. Maybe he just had a bad day?

"Hey, you, newbie." Someone poked her with their bow. She turned to look, it was some blonde guy. So this must be Tidus...

"Wh-ho said I was a newbie?"

"I can see it in your eyes... you're scared, aren't you?"

Kairi, angry at his teasing, frowned, and put her most confident face on. "I most certainly am NOT."

Tidus took the chance to change the subject. "Hey, can I change the music? And you better practice, or you're gonna stay right where you are..." he smirked.

After this warning, Kairi started to practice like crazy. Even though she thought she was doing okay, she felt Tidus's eyes on her.

"...You're really bad at shifting, you know that?" His taunts were now getting to her head.

She gave him a glare, and kicked him. HARD. Then, she smiled innocently, and continued to play the piece in front of her. As Tidus was moaning about his "poor leg," a girl tapped him on the shoulder and told him he was next. He then smirked, and hobbled over to Mr. Leonhart's office, trying to ignore the pain in his right leg. What DID Selphie see in that idiot anyway? Kairi wondered.

She saw Tidus walked into Mr. Leonhart's office and walked up to the door. I'm gonna give this a try anyway, she thought, determined. Tidus came out, immaturely stuck his tongue out at her as she went inside.

"Kairi, I'm surprized. I thought you weren't going to test."

"Well, I wanted to give it a try, and there's nothing to lose, right?"

"Guess so."

It turned out that Mr. Leonhart had chose the spots with the most complicated fingerings and the highest shifts. Kairi hadn't been too good at those yet, and she winced as the squeaky notes passed by.

"Thanks, Kairi, would you like to tell Yuffie that the violas are next?"

Kairi walked out the door, and tapped Yuffie on the shoulder. She confidently walked in as Kairi sat down in her seat.

Soon, all of the orchestra members had auditioned, and there were about 10 more minutes left of class. Mr. Leonhart walked up to the stand, once again, along with 5 sheets of paper.

"Okay, you guys did good today. I'm glad that no one was talking from what I could see; and I didn't have to give you guys a talking-to the way that I had to for the Junior Orchestra today."

The whole orchestra's eyes seemed to be on the papers in front of him, not absorbing what he had just said a for the past minute.

"You guys are just DYING to know your seats, aren't you?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay, let's start with violins. 18th is Stephanie..." he droned on, until he got to 2nd and first. "2nd is Yuna, and our Concert Mistress is Selphie."

"YAY!" Selphie jumped out of her seat and did a victory dance.

The teacher continued on for the 2nd violins, and then the violas. Yuffie had gotten first chair, once again.

Finally, it was time for the cellos. "16th... Kairi."

Just hearing that alone was a huge dissapointemtnt to her. She hung her head over her cello hopelessly. But... didn't she say that she didn't care which chair that she got? Remembering that, she attempted to calm herself down, and told herself to do better next time. This method, as it does with many people, failed to work on her self-esteem.

"2nd... Tidus... Principal... Sora, as usual." Mr. Leonhart silently set down the papers in front of him. This caused the orchestra to stir up and chat about their chairs.

Next to her, Tidus groaned. "DAMMIT, I wanted to beat that bastard for once!"

Kairi was holding back giggles at that comment. At least Sora beat that egotistical blonde...

Mr. Leonhart inturrupted the chatting. "Tommorow... for those of you who are bad at counting chairs, I will have a seating chart on the board, same place it was today. Pack up, you guys were good, and we have festival in a month. Keep working on that music. No one's got it good enough- yet. "

After class was over, Selphie ran over to Tidus. "I'm so happy for you!" She glomped him.

Underneath Selphie, Tidus was fuming. "Get... off... me... wench."

She was offended by the word wench; Tidus must have been mad, he'd never used that term to describe her before. He'd use pest, annoyance, brat, and sometimes bitch, but never... wench.

"Geez, why didn't you tell me it was your time of the month?" Selphie giggled and they left the orchestra room.

Science was next, so they headed off towards the Science labs to meet Namine.

"How was it?" Kairi asked.

Namine looked down. "The class was okay... but there was this one boy that kept on making fun of me..."

"WHO WAS HE?" Yuffie was fuming; she knew that Namine was an easy target for teasing, but why'd it start on the first day?

"I don't know... he was that one kid that made that comment today in English..."

"I'LL KILL HIM!"

"Um, Yuffie, I really don't think that's nessicary." This time, Selphie was the one calming Yuffie down.

YUffie growled and they headed into the Science lab.

Kairi moaned as she flung her backpack onto the floor of her room.

"Homework is no fun..." she groaned as she pulled out the many sheets that needed to be filled out.


	5. Chapter 4: Embarassing Moments

A/N: Chapter 4! Actually, most of the stuff that happens in this chapter is what usually happens in orchestra at my school... yup, fun times. :D 

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or The Idylls of Pegasus.

Chapter 4: Embarassing Moments

Softly and slowly, Kairi played the few measures that she was having trouble with from the piece in front of her. Her vibrato and shifting were getting a bit better, although not much since Mr. Leonhart had been too busy to help her lately. It was nowhere near as good as Sora's, but she didn't expect that. Who actually did?

For the past few days, Kairi had been coming to the orchestra room as soon as she had finished eating her lunch. She hated to do that, but it would soon be over... this weekend, she would be getting her paycheck, and renting her new cello. She crossed her fingers in hope that it would be as nice as her cello at school.

Selphie and Yuffie had been a bit upset about her leaving as soon as she ate, but Namine was nice about it. Really, that girl needed to be at least a little bit more assertive, Kairi thought. She would really just let anyone get away with anything, never really letting her feelings into the situation. Roxas, the boy in Namine's French class, had continued to tease and taunt her. It wasn't just in French, either, it was in English, too. Kairi had felt so awful about watching her own best friend suffer from a stupid guy that just wouldn't leave her alone.

"Hey, are you alright?" Kairi heard Sora's voice. "You kind of spaced out there."

She blushed. Really, why couldn't she just act normal around him? He always caught her at her worst.

"...Yeah, I'm fine." She managed to stutter before going back to the piece.

He took this opportunity to sit down next to her, and followed where she was in the music.

She stopped when she realized his eyes were on her. "What?" she asked, a bit too defensively.

"You're... kind of out of tune."

Kairi sighed. Why was everyone on her case lately? "Look, I'm just having a bit of trouble-"

"I'll help you."

No need to argue with that. "O-okay." she stuttered. Why was he being so nice to her, instead of some other girl cellist? And why would he be wasting his time helping her anyway? He was almost famous, being able to get into Julliard!

He walked over to his cello, and brought it over. It looked very... familiar to Kairi, especially the beautiful red-brown shade of the wood.

"Here, let me play it for you first." He set this bow on the string, and let the melody flow out from it. He stopped after the line, almost sounding like someone had cut off the record. He then said, "You try it now."

If Kairi had any confidence on playing that line before, it had completely washed away now. She pathetically attemped to copy his movements. When she reached a high shift, it turned into a squeak, and both of them winced.

He gave some thought before commenting about this. He knew that she had the passion and talent that came with it that Tidus obviously didn't; but technically, she was most definately not the best cello player around.

"Hey, do you have a cello at home? Because I know that it would help a lot if you did." He smiled at her.

She shook her head meekly, and said, "I used the school's over the summer, but... yeah, I had to return it when school started." She looked down to hide her red face.

"Lunch time really isn't the best time to practice... there's always people popping in and and out of here, and they're usually noisy and distracting."

She gave him a Look, as if to ask if he was always in here.

"Yes, I AM in here everyday. It's like home to me, you know? Ever since my father died, Mr. Leonhart's almost taken his place."

"Oh... well..." She felt sudden sympathy for him.

"It's okay, really... I don't remember him much, and my mom works hard enough for the two of us."

She gave a shy nod. Why was she becoming like Namine around him? Wasn't she just criticizing her friend's behavior?

"Well, I'm going to get back to my seat; the bell's gonna ring soon, and Tidus is going to try to steal my chair if I'm not there before he is."

Kairi giggled at that comment. Tidus just wouldn't admit to anyone that Sora was better than him, would he? Even if he had to go to immature measures to do attempt to prove he was better...

After he walked off, Kairi slumped in her seat. She had realized before that she despirately needed a cello, but not as badly as now. It also depressed her more than anything else that SHE would have to be the one to pay for it.

Just as Sora predicted, the bell rang, and all of the freshmen orchestra shoved and pushed each other into the room, and then did so a little bit more around the instrument lockers in the crammed room with all of the instruments.

"HI KAIRI!" Selphie squealed. She waved to her from afar and then found Tidus to bother. He was talking to Yuna, the girl who had originally been first chair before the chair tests. Selphie glomped him from behind and then screamed into his ear. "TIDUS!"

"Oww!" he screamed in pain for his ear. "Selphie! If I play out of tune today, it's ALL your freaking fault!" He then left a half-quivering Selphie and a very pissed Yuna by the lockers.

Selphie twitched. "Someone's PMSing."

Yuna gave her a light slap on the arm. "Be nice to him. He hasn't done anything to you."

"I never meant to do anything!"

"Well, aparently, you did."

The whole orchestra watched the feuding top violinists, and realized that it was going to be a VERY rocky stand partnership between the two. When Selphie noticed the eyes on her, she grabbed her instrument, gave one last glare at Yuna, and haughtily walked to her seat.

"Okay, kids, the excitement is over. So hush up, and get to your seats." Mr. Leonhart, who was waiting at his conductor's stand, tapped it with his conductors stick. And he tapped it quite loudly for a stick of such small size.

That got everyone's attention. The little orchestra cliques in each corner all ran to their seats, and unpacked as quickly as possibly.

Mr. Leonhart turned to Yuna, looking at her oddly. "Do you have gum?" he asked, warily. Before she even nodded, he opened his gradebook in front of him and made a mark. A frown creased into his face.

Red came to Yuna's face as she guiltily walked over to the trash can to throw it out. Selphie smirked; she was the one who knew the rules here.

Kairi looked at Mr. Leonhart. Yup, he was very different from this summer. He wasn't the fun teacher that had time to help every one of them individually. Now, his mouth was permanently shaped into a straight line- meaning no smiles or frowns.

"Hm, now that we have that silly business away and over with, let's tune." He put the pitch of the A string on the overhead speaker, and waited for everyone to check and adjust their strings.

Tuning was one of the few things that came easily to Kairi for cello- as long as she didn't need to use her pegs. There was just something annoying about having to get up out of her seat and embarassing herself with her lack of strength. Her ear was half glued to her instrument, and matched the pitch of the A string to the one on the speaker. She then played the D and the A strings together, to form a perfect fifth. After, she repeated with the D and G, and G and C.

She was in her own little world for about five minutes, listening to the song of the 4 open strings. During this time, Sora had taken the chance to turn around and give her a Look. "Are you done yet? We're kind of waiting for you."

Darn it, he caught her again, and now her face was probably as dark as her hair. "...Y-yeah." She stuttered out, and then attempted to regain her normal flesh color again.

Mr. Leonhart asked the group to get out their piece, "The Idylls of Pegasus." This was the one where Selphie and Sora had solos, and was the hardest one for Kairi.

The drone of talking buzzed around the room, until Mr. Leonhart loudly and purposefully cleared his throat. "Okay, class. You're in high school now, which means, when I ask you to get out a piece of music, you don't talk. For that, you will NOT be packing up until the bell." He gave all of the talkers a cold, hard glare.

Moans and groans flooded through the room. Mr. Leonhart ignored them, and turned to Sora, the starting soloist. He waved his hands in the air and said, "From the top," and gave Sora the upbeat before starting his solo.

The music that came from the cello Sora was playing was more than words could describe. It was beautiful, yet melancholy at the same time... it just made Kairi want to cry. She watched every bit of his movements, which was not an easy feat considering there were about 10 people she had to peek through just to get a little glimpse at him.

Suddenly, the whole orchestra cut off.

"SOMEONE," Mr. Leonhart looked directly at Kairi, "missed their entrance. Everyone, start after Sora's solo. Then, little miss daydreaming-about-Sora can have another chance and coming in with the rest of her section." He gave her a look that screamed, Just because you're last chair doesn't mean I can't see you back there, missy.

Kairi was more embarassed then than ever before. First of all, Mr. Leonhart pointed her out from the rest of the cellos, and as if that wasn't enough, he accused her of crushing on Sora! Through her anger, she saw Sora wink at her. She was sure that it was at her; who else would it be? Fantastic, she thought, now he thinks I like him, too.

She told herself to ignore Sora and his cello playing for the rest of the period. Or else she would have been pointed out once AGAIN by Mr. Leonhart, the teacher that she no longer favored the most.

But then... every so often, her mind would wander off, but then it would pop back into place again. Sort of. She didn't play as well as she usually did when she was practicing, but that was beside the point, right? (right!)

As the bell rang, Mr. Leonhart finally let his arms rest as his side for the first time in fifty minutes. "Pack up," he said, and then walked towards his office.

Kairi huffed as she put the cello back into the bag, and then set it carefully on the rack before dashing out the room to catch up with Selphie and Yuffie.

"Ugh!" She whined. "He was such a bastard today..." she rested her forehead on the palms of her hands.

Selphie patted her friend's shoulder. "It's okay, Kairi, he's kind of always like that. Grouchy and kind of ALWAYS upset about something."

"NO HE'S NOT!" A couple of heads turned as Yuffie argued in protest with her friend. "He's just been grouchy because it's the first week of school, you know that Selph!"

"Well," Selphie teased, "you're just saying that 'cause he's always nice to you."

Yuffie didn't comment after that; she just tried to keep herself from blushing before they reached the Science room.

-

"Here's your paycheck, missy. I don't think you earned it, though." Kairi's grouchy co-worker handed her the slip of paper.

"Thanks." Kairi said, just as grimmly. Why would she want to be at work on Saturday when she could be the one inside the mall with her friends?

She was about to leave when someone grabbed her wrist. "Not time for you to leave yet." It was the manager. "You have clean up today."

She groaned; how could she have forgotten once AGAIN? She could just feel the manager smirking at her as she got the rag and started to wipe off the counter.

"At this rate, I'll be at the music store at about six..." she moaned to herself.

"Complaining?"

She immediately looked up, and saw the oh-so-pissed manager's face. "No."

-

An hour later, she had finally reached the music store, huffing and puffing. She had to first stop at the bank that was one block away, and then she had to come back in the same direction that she came from before to reach the store.

"Okay, Kairi, you are going to breathe now... in and out... in and out..." she muttered to herself outside the doors.

After she quickly collected herself, she smiled and dashed into the store.

She walked over to the cellos, and waited for someone to come to her. A few minutes went by, and all of the workers had been busy with someone else. She didn't want to bother them; it would be embarassing to.

She tapped her fingers impatiently and sighed, resting her head on her arm against the counter. How much longer was this going to take? She wanted to get to practice and three-way with Selphie and Yuffie at least a LITTLE bit before she was forced to go to bed...

"Hey, you need any help?"

Thinking that it was a store worker, she replied. "Yes." Then, she turned around and realized it was a familiar face with brown hair and blue eyes...

"Hey, Kairi!" he cheerfully grinned at her.

"Hi..."

"So are you gonna rent a cello? Or buy one?"

"...yeah... why are you here?" she asked.

"I had to drop off my bow to get it rehaired... but I come here so much for sheet music that the people know me. I'll get someone to help you." He tapped the shoulder of someone in the store's uniform.

"What? Oh, hi Sora... need help?" The woman immediately turned away from the other customer and walked behind the cello counter.

"Yeah... my friend," he waved at Kairi, "needs a new cello. Any recommendations?"

The store clerk turned to Kairi. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking to rent." She felt a bit more confident talking to the lady behind the counter, and looking away at Sora.

"Well, I'm going to go. Kairi, I hope you get the cello you wanted!" Sora gave a wave and left.

Kairi let out a sigh of relief. She didn't feel nervous, now that Sora wasn't around.

"You like the boy, don't you?"

Kairi moaned and slapped her forehead. "No! It's not like that... it's just that he's the principal chair and..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The clerk inturrupted her. "Such a wonderful boy, Sora... only I wish that he'd take a break from his musical studies." She stopped rambling and asked, "So, shall we look at the cellos?"

"Okay!" Kairi followed the lady as she pointed out a few. "Since you obviously go to Sora's High School, then I'm assuming that you'll need an intermediate to advanced cello..."

"Oh, no... I just started out, and I uh..." She paused. How was she going to say this to the lady? "I... "

"Don't have much money? That's okay! Since you're Sora's girlfriend, I'll find you the ones with the best deals."

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Why was everyone thinking that lately?

The woman chuckled. "Okay, then. Let's take a look."

-

Finding the cello that Kairi had wanted wasn't too hard. After all, there were only three general different types within her price range.

She smiled as she carried the cello home. But that smile turned into a straight face as she thought of Sora. Sure, he was a nice guy... but WHY, oh WHY did everyone think they were in a romantic relationship?

She opened the door to her house, and then walked up to her room.

After replaying his music in her head, she could feel her heart rate quickening.

Did she really like Sora that way?

-

End Notes: Yes, Kairi's boss is a bitch. Yes, I have played "The Idylls of Pegasus" before. It's by Richard Meyer & a gorgeous cello solo at the beginning... TT Although I really wouldn't say it's a 9th grade piece, cuz it's fricking HARD... I played it in youth orchestra last year.But it was the only orchestra piece that I knew well enough that there was both a cello & 2 1st violin solos. Because... that's how I wanted it, LOL.


	6. Chapter 5: Lessons

A/N: I got bored... 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything...

Chapter 5: Lessons

Kairi had figured something out the day she brought her new cello home- that being that it more definately did NOT have the same tone as her cello at school. Sure, it could be worse... but since Sora's music had been ringing in her ears lately, she just wanted to cover her own ears from her own playing.

She moaned as she sat back in her chair. Why was she so bad? Why wouldn't she play like Sora? Or Tidus? Or even her stand partner? She was hopeless...

A phone call sounded very comforting at a time like this. She dialed the number of her hyper violinist of a friend, and waited for her to pick it up.

"KAIRI! HI!" Selphie squealed into the phone. "What's up?"

"I got my new cello." Kairi's reply was blunt.

"COOL! I WANNA SEE IT!"

"Yeah, I'll show you it... later. Hopefully next week."

"Aww, Kairi! Why not now?"

"I'm kind of tired after getting yelled at by the manager, and then dragging my cello home."

"You know what Kairi?"

"What?"

"You haven't been having enough fun lately. That stupid job of yours is getting to your head!" She paused for a moment. "I HAVE AN IDEA!"

"And what is that?" Kairi sighed. Maybe she should have called Yuffie or Namine... at least they wouldn't be convinced that she wasn't having enough "fun."

"You are coming with us to the Junior High school concert next month! I know the date of it exactly!"

"Next MONTH?" That's... a long way to plan ahead! I don't have my working schedule for that month yet! What if I have overtime on that day?"

"You're coming, whether you like it or not. And you're going to help us drag Tidus and Sora along."

"I don't know. And why are you so obsessed with bothering those two?"

"Kairi..." Selphie whined, "you're acting like you're 30! You're only 14... stop worrying about the stuff that old people worry about. And they're coming because Tidus is cute, and YOU and Sora are going to hook up."

"But..."

"YOU'RE COMING!" Kairi's hyper friend was turning quite Nazi-like now- so poor Kairi had to agree.

"Okay, I guess."

She could almost hear her friend grinning on the other line. And she could litterally hear her jumping on her bed. "Selphie, aren't you getting a bit too tall to jump on the bed?"

"NO!" Selphie squealed, but that was soon followed by a shriek and a massive crash. "AHH! OW! OW!"

Kairi's once teasing smirk turned into a worried frown on her face as she heard the shrieking.

"Selph, do you need to me to come over?"

"No... I'm perfectly OKAY!" The hyper girl insisted.

"Then... well, I have to go, Selphie... Mom wants to call the financial advisor."

The two bid farewell, and then Kairi lied down on her bed, completely beat. "What was Selphie talking about, anyway? I'm not going to get together with Sora..." she mummbled to herself before drifting into sleep.

-

Monday came too soon, at least in Kairi's opinion. She still wasn't good enough on The Idylls of Pegasus... seeing that her intonation never matched the rest. Festival was going to be in a few weeks; was she ever going to be good enough to catch up with the rest of the orchestra?

Maybe it was mistake to join orchestra; so far, it had been just another pain on her life. Selphie and Yuffie had it easy, they had invested in their instruments starting in forth grade, so now they ones with quality that they were satisfied with. And now, she had felt a bit of guilt about leaving Namine. Before, Namine had been the one Kairi was closest to; now, Selphie was the one who she was closest.

Maybe it's just one of the changes that high school brings, Kairi thought glumily as she pulled on her clothes and brushed her hair.

She went out to meet her friends, and there seemed to be a bit of tension between the four. Selphie was constantly rubbing her head where a visible bump was, Yuffie was muttering something about getting revenge on someone else, and Namine seemed a bit... upset. Selphie and Yuffie slightly broke the tension by getting into another one of their infamous arguements.

Kairi took this chance to walk closer to Namine, hoping to find out a little bit about what was up. "Hey, Namine... you look down, what's wrong?"

Her voice allowed the other two friends in the group to come a bit closer, and allowed for the two to stop bickering. "Yeah, Namine, what's wrong?" Yuffie's face was filled with concern. "You're ususally not THIS quiet."

Namine responded by looking away. "I don't really want to talk about it..."

"Is it about that Roxas guy again?" Selphie asked. "Because you know... when a guy keeps teasing a girl... it means that he LIKES her..." she teased.

"That's part of the problem..." Namine mumbled. "But it's not really that..."

"Oh." Selphie then assumed that it was nothing too big, and contined to argue with Yuffie about the new violas this year.

"I can't believe that one girl, Maria... she thinks that she's so good, when she's all out of tune even in 3rd position!" Yuffie let out a huff.

"Well... I thought that they're getting a little better, I mean, at least that one guy, Ryou dropped out... I swear that guy couldn't even hold his bow! And then he always pestered Miss Heartilly with those stupid questions..."

"I didn't like Miss Heartilly anyway..."

"That's because she went out once with Mr. Leonhart!" Selphie knew that she was poking at Yuffie's sensitive spot.

"That's because YOU urged her so much to get a romantic relationship in her life..."

"Well, I'M not the one who likes someone about twenty years older than me!"

Yuffie sighed when she realized her loss. "Can we change the subject?"

"I wish that the stupid ninth grade orchestra wasn't so secluded from the rest of them... I mean, it just totally sticks out! You look at our program, and it says, Freshman Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Symphony Orchestra. LOOK AT THE NAME DIFFERENCE! HELLO!" Selphie jumped in attempt to glare at Yuffie straight in the eye.

"But what difference would that make? The only thing would be that we wouldn't be playing with as many people in the same grade as us. You're making too big of a deal out of this, Selphie." Yuffie looked down at her short friend.

"Yuffie, are you deaf? Did you hear how bad the basses were after Kristina moved?"

"Oh, so now you're saying that our basses suck?"

"YES! We despirately need RIKU, but he's a sophmore. And if we got rid of the freshmen orchestra..."

-

The day was quiet. Unnaturally quiet, actually.

Or maybe Kairi had been missing out quite a bit about the drama going on at her usual lunch table with Namine, Yuffie, and Selphie. Selphie had seemed to be chewing on a piece of bread longer than normal people do, Yuffie had her face buried in "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl," and Namine was sketching quietly while Kairi was starting the load of English homework that she had for the night.

Kairi observed each of her friends quietly, until she couldn't take it anymore. "WHY MUST EVERYONE BE SO QUIET TODAY?" Her outburst seemed to overpower the low roar of the rest of the voices in the cafeteria, and a few heads turned to look. They found nothing but a screaming redhead, thought it was nothing important, and turned back to their own cliques.

"Kairi," Namine spoke softly. "Yuffie and Selphie got into a fight this morning."

"But they always fight, and it never ends up being an actual 'fight.'" She made air quotes with her hands.

"Well, this time it is."

"Oh."

Silence followed the conversation, and Kairi turned back to her English homework. The state of the lunch table didn't change until the bell rang.

"Kairi, wait up!" She heard Selphie's voice as Kairi hustled through the crowd to try to get to orchestra.

They walked in silence, and Yuffie was nowhere to be seen. She must have taken a different route... Kairi thought.

Selphie chose to end the quietness between the two. "I'm mad at Yuffie."

This wasn't news to Kairi, but she said, "Why?"

"Okay, this morning... when we walked off to put our instruments away and you and Namine went ahead to English, I told her that Tidus asked Yuna out. Did you know that?"

Kairi shook her head, so the other girl continued.

"And then she said, 'He wouldn't have asked you out anyway, or gone with you to any place outside of school,' and you know, I was already kind of mad at her, and it was like, the last straw, you know?

"So then I blew up at her, told her that she was a stupid bitch that was in love with a teacher right in front of Mr. Leonhart. But Mr. Leonhart was actually nice about it and didn't make us go to the office."

"...Wow." That was all Kairi could muster.

"And then Yuffie just huffed and said I was being immature, as usual, and then walked off to the other violas and decided that their conversation was MUCH more interesting than mine. I can't stand any of them! Tidus, Yuna, OR Yuffie! They're making my life miserable!" The once-hyper girl looked like she was going to cry.

Kairi gave her a hug. "It's okay, Selph... Tidus was a jerk, anyway. He doesn't deserve you. Yuffie's probably just going through some dramatic phase... like she always does... oh, I'm sure you guys will make up within a week!"

The idea made Selphie smile. "Come on, the tardy bell's about to ring! Let's go to orchestra!" The two girls ran into the room.

The class passed smoothly for everyone but Kairi. Everytime, she could feel everyone's, including Sora's, eyes on her. Mr. Leonhart even gave her a glare and said, "You better be ready for festival in a few weeks, Kairi." She grumpily put her cello into it's bag, and was about to bring it over to a rack when Sora stopped her.

"Hey, Kairi!" He gave her a cheerful smile.

"Hey," she nervously smiled back.

She was about to walk off again until he touched her arm. "Do you need any help with your music? I mean, I can help you like I did before..."

Kairi wanted to retort back at him, and walk off, but he obviously wasn't finished yet. "Yeah..." she mumbled a little bit before letting him finish talking.

Was it just her, or did he seem a little pink in the cheeks? "That is," he sputtered, "if you don't mind meeting together and all because I'm sure that you're busy..."

Did he just offer to teach her? This was an opportunity that Kairi could not and would not pass up. "I'd love that, Sora!" Her nervousness flew away and a wide grin made its way to her face.

He grinned back at her. "Well... I'll let you put your cello away now, and we can talk about when to meet like tommorow."

"Okay." she giggled, and almost pranced to the cello rack, but stopped herself.

Sora grinned to himself. She was so adorable...

-

Kairi decided to try to get to the bottom of what was happening to Namine in art that day. She learned a long time ago that if you wanted Namine to tell you exactly what was on her mind, you would talk to her while she was drawing or painting. Then, she would ignore the troubles of the world, and just let poetry soar out of her lips.

The only problem was; when would Kairi approach her? Ahh, she wasn't going to worry; she was just going to wing it.

She sat down and looked at the drawing that she was about to color. It was better than average... but not exactly the best. But that was okay; art was Namine's thing, and she wasn't planning on stealing that from her.

"Hey, Kairi... can I tell you something that you'll promise to never tell anyone?" A soft voice mumbled next to her.

"Yeah?" They were both looking at their pieces of artwork and not at each other, but it didn't matter because this was just their way, in their little artists' world, of having a conversation.

"I've been feeling unwanted lately... you guys are all in orchestra together... and I'm just the one that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's like... I wish I didn't rely on you guys so much... Yuffie's so protective and Selphie makes me happy... but it's like I can't be my own person around you guys. You treat me like... some china doll that would be broken if you left it alone for just a little bit. And I'm glad that you guys are so nice about chasing away Roxas and everything, but I... I want to fight my own battles."

Kairi was shocked. She had felt like Namine was excluded, but she always thought that she would be able to find another friend. And she had never realized how much that she had been like the caretaker of Namine all of these years.

"Namine... that's wonderful... I mean, not that you're so sad, but it's so wonderful that you want to fight your own battles. We'll support you all the way." Kairi felt that her words weren't comforting enough, but Namine had seemed to perk up a bit afterwards.

-

Kairi arrived promptly in front of Sora's house at 5:30 the next day. It was the only day of the week that she had off of work, so why not just schedule her lesson then? Sora didn't seem to care which day they had it on, or what time, for that matter; he was flexible with times.

It was a little bit awkward to be going to a boy's house at her age, but Sora's mom had spoken with her own, and Kairi assumed that they had agreed that it was okay. She rang the doorbell, and about thirty seconds later, a middle aged woman answered the doorbell.

"Hi! You must be Kairi... come sit, Sora's gonna come in soon." She silently sat down in one of the two empty chairs next to a music stand in the room that she was led to. As she did, his mother asked, "Would you like something to drink?" She shook her head.

She unpacked her instrument quickly, and tuned a little by ear before Sora came in with his own cello.

"Let's get started, before you go crazy tuning like a lunatic," he teased. "So, what do you need help with most?" He sat in the chair next to her, flipping through the four pieces. He took the freedom to pull out The Idylls of Pegasus, and said, "You seemed to having a lot of trouble with this one, especially when we're counting our rests."

"Yeah." She didn't know what to say, so why not just let him do all of the talking?

"So, I'll start right here-" he pointed about five measures before his solo had ended, "-and come in at the right time."

The first time they tried, she came in a measure ahead. The second time, she was late. And even though third time was usually the charm, she still came in one beat to early.

Sora was getting impatient. Who knew that teaching someone could be so HARD? He excused himself to get a drink of water, and he groaned as the cold liquid ran down his throat. He firmly set the glass on the table, took a deep breath, and headed back into the the room where Kairi was waiting.

"Okay. Let's try again. Kairi, if you don't feel like counting... just follow my part, okay? I know that you have a good ear, so you don't need to be staring at me. Plus, there's no answer written on my face."

She gave a little nod, and this time, she got on beat.

Sora was singing hallelujah in his head. FINALLY, he thought. Now to move on to the easier part; the intonation.

"So, Kairi... what else are you having trouble with? I know you messed up a lot today but I can't exactly remember..."

She felt her face burn with embarassment, until she realized that he was just teasing. She smiled weakly, and pointed out the parts with the high shifts.

"Okay, here... play it for me, would you?"

She tried it, and barely winged it. Her intonation was just awful... it sounded like she hadn't practiced in months, even though she had been trying to get that part fixed.

"Let's play it together. We'll go a little slower, so then you can match your notes with mine."

She listened closely to Sora's notes, trying to do as he said. She got it in the lower shifts, but in the higher positions, none of her notes seemed to match, and Sora was telling her which direction to move her finger.

She could almost feel his impatience growing within him. He spoke a little harsher, and she was afraid that he wouldn't want to teach her anymore. No... she couldn't do that... it was just the first lesson!

"Kairi, you are WAY too low. You know why? Because you aren't shifting your thumb high enough with the rest of your fingers!" He pushed her thumb further down the neck of her cello. "See, now you can actually reach the note."

"Heh... I see now." She looked up, to come face to face with a frown that completely intimidated her. And it was, most definately, one that she would not like to see again. Sora was not exactly happy at the moment, and it seemed that he was about to unleash his anger if it weren't for his mother to pop in.

"Sora, it's 6:30. Kairi's mother is going to call soon, wondering what you guys are up to."

"Okay, Mom," Sora said before sighing and setting down his cello to the side.

As Kairi packed up, she wondered if she should appologize. It wasn't her fault she couldn't count... or was it? She quickly told herself that she shouldn't be making excuses.

Sora walked her to the door, and said goodbye. When he was about to walk away, Kairi stopped him.

"Look... I'm really sorry that I made you mad..."

He smiled his usual goofy smile and said, "Hey, it's okay. I guess I just don't have the highest patience level in the world. I should be the one appologizing... I mean... I think now that I'm not ready for the whole teaching thing."

"You don't teach anyone already? I would have thought you did..."

"No, I don't... little kids and I don't really mix. And then you get my temper in there... haha, then it's not a pretty picture." He looked at the sky. "It's getting kind of dark... you shouldn't walk home by yourself; I'll ask my mom to drive you home."

She looked at the sky, too. It was blueish orange, and it was getting darker by the minute. "It won't be much trouble, will it?" She realized that she really did not want to be treking home about half a mile in the darkness.

"Nah, you live close." He went to call for his mother.

His mother came out, and they waved goodbye as she climbed into the car. "Thanks." She smiled.

And from that day on, a friendship had begun.


	7. Chapter 6: Festival

A/N: Waiting for the AI finale to start tonight... tEEhEE... 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 6: Festival

Kairi was hunched over on her stand, twirling her pencil in her hand. Fingerings really did trouble her... and Mr. Leonhart's weren't exactly the easiest to read on the music with his sloppy handwriting. So she had told herself that in order to get together some more confidence playing the cello, she'd figure out her own.

"So if I use 1 here, then I'd have to shift back down on that note... or I could cross strings, but I'm not good at that in a position other than first... ARGH!" she screamed in frustration. The walls of the orchestra room echoed her scream, taunting her. No one else was in the room- Mr. Leonhart and Sora were having a chat in the office, and today was one of the few days that no one decided to come by and practice. Her friends were off somewhere- Yuffie was probably talking to a few others in fencing with her, and Selphie was probably, oh, perhaps pestering Tidus? And Namine was in the art room, finishing up something that was due in seventh hour.

Selphie and Yuffie were still mad at each other and refused to speak; and with them both as principal chairs, it was a little hard to keep the orchestra together. Kairi was a little, wait, VERY surprised that Mr. Leonhart had yet to talk to the girls about it. He seemed to know most of the things going on in the orchestra members' lives. Sora and the 2nd violin principal had been trying to hold them together, but with the 1st violins a measure ahead and the violas a measure behind, so that didn't help much, did it?

Festival was coming up in four short days. And in those four days, Selphie and Yuffie would have to make up, Kairi had to get more accurate in shifting and counting, and she had to go to her next lesson with Sora.

She hadn't spoken much with Sora since her lesson, just a little hello or goodbye. Honestly, she was nervous to even approach the boy. When teaching, he seemed to have such a short temper, and she most definately did not want to irk him into the situation again.

Sora had popped out of Mr. Leonhart's office in response to Kairi's frustration. He came over next to her, and asked if there was anything he could do to help. She muttered something about fingerings, and so he sat down in the chair next to her to help her sort out the parts in the excerpt she was working on.

"This section-" he pointed out a few measures, "can all be played in first position, just with a few extentions with the sharps. And then here," he pointed to a note, "you need to shift to third position, and stay there until that phrase is done. Then, you can go back to 1st."

"But- but- I don't like switching strings in 3rd position."

"Then practice it. You'll get used to it." He patted her on the head and went back to his chat with the teacher.

Kairi glared holes into Sora's head until he was out of sight. Sure, he was a wonderful teacher and cellist, but WHY, oh WHY did he pat her on the head like she was a dog? And she couldn't exactly ignore the smirk in his eyes when he did so.

She decided to ignore that, just for now, so she could attempt to switch strings in 3rd position. After a few attempts, she got it- sort of. It wasn't exactly a beauty to hear, but at least her fingers weren't all over the place.

The bell rang, and Sora casually walked to his seat. He didn't have to rush anymore, because ever since Tidus had started going out with Yuna, he was much more laid back about his chair, and didn't really care that he wasn't the best anymore- possibly because Yuna was second to Selphie the way that he was to Sora.

"Hey, Kairi!" Selphie waved as she walked past Kairi's seat. She purposely took the long way around, just to keep away from Tidus and Yuna. The little girl had still hadn't gotten over the fact that Tidus might have found someone else. Not that he really showed any interest in Selphie in the first place.

"Hey, Kairi!" Another voice greeted her- Yuffie, and she happened to be going around the same way Selphie was. Kairi waved back, and saw that she and Selphie were having a glaring contest. Finally, Selphie had won, and Yuffie went around the other direction.

"Hmph." Selphie continued the way she was going and hustled to her seat.

Kairi rolled her eyes at her friends' immaturity. They were the ones who were better at their instruments than she was, so why did it seem like they were the ones who were bringing the orchestra down? She half expected this kind of behavior from Selphie, but never in a million years would she think that Yuffie would start acting the same way.

Mr. Leonhart tapped loudly on his stand. "As you know, we have the Islands Festival in four days. That gives us FOUR days to get together our weakest piece, "The Idylls of Pegasus," FOUR days for some people-" He gave Yuffie and Selphie a look- "to grow up, and FOUR days to speed up the other two of our festival pieces.

"I had expected a little bit more of you guys- according to Miss Heartilly, you guys have been one of the more talented groups that she's had- which is why I chose "The Idylls of Pegasus," a song that most likely only the Concert or Chamber would have the honor of playing. I had also expected your behavior to be MUCH better, from what I've witnessed last year.

"So, since I know that most of you aren't listening, I'm going to put on the tuner." The A tone came through the loud speakers as Mr. Leonhart pushed a button.

The class quickly tuned, intimidated by the fact that Mr. Leonhart could tell that most of them weren't listening. He seemed pleased by their sudden and newfound speed and accuracy.

"So, let's get out 'Idylls.'" He spoke, and a rustle of papers followed. "From the last note of Sora's solo, measure 13, I think."

They advanced through the song, up until Selphie's first solo. Then, Mr. Leonhart cut off the orchestra, and sighed. "You guys are really disappointing me. Violas, you were about 10 beats slower than the rest of us. Violins, you're rushing REAL bad. Cellos, you aren't sounding together. And I need more bass. From measure 40."

They followed the upset teacher's command, but were stopped once again at the same place they were the first time. "VIOLAS," he said, and glared. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you do NOT need to follow your principal like a flock of faithful sheep. Please realize that she is occasionally WRONG. VIOLINS," he said in the same harsh tone, and turned to face them. "YOU are doing the same. I know that you are all well taught enough to count on your own, not just to be slaves to the rest of your section. Seconds, your part is not even CLOSE to the firsts and you are still listening all too well to them. FIRSTS, I don't how else to say it, so PLEASE STOP RUSHING!" He took a long breath. "Yuffie, Selphie, I need to see you two after class."

The whole orchestra finally got the point. After that outburst, the rest of the rehearsal ran smoothly.

-

Yuffie and Selphie glared at each other as they walked into Mr. Leonharts office for the "talk." They both reached out to knock at the same time, glaring at each other, but Mr. Leonhart decided to stop the argument before it started and beckoned for them to come in.

He didn't hold back with what he had to say. "You two," he stated, "may be one of the more talented people of the Destiny High Orchestras, but let me tell you this." He paused for a second, making sure he still had their attention. "I don't know what petty fight that you girls have gotten into, but it HAS to stop. Your sections are counting on you. The whole orchestra is counting on you. And yet you mess it up on purpose just because some personal fight."

Yuffie gave him a complete I'm-perfectly-innocent-she-started-it look, but he continued. "Don't think that you're fooling me with saying that you can't play it. I happen to KNOW that you two can play perfectly well on tempo. Have you forgotten All-State?"

Having no more to say, he finished, "I'm done. Get to class." They briskly walked out and headed toward Science.

"I can't believe you, Yuffie! You're the one who totally screwed up the piece."

"I wouldn't be talking, Miss I-can-play-faster-and-better-than-the-rest-of-you-so-why-don't-we-play-a-game-of-chase. At least my section was together. Yours was all over the place."

"Yeah, right. You were just playing slow because your sections sucks, and neither you or Mr. Leonhart will admit that."

"Psh, that's because you get the easy job. Leading a bunch of private teacher taught students. I happen to know that Mr. Leonhart thinks higher of me than you because I have had to deal with people who need more help."

"You know what, Yuffie?" Selphie pulled on the handle of the door in front of her.

"What?"

"You're a real bitch." Selphie stepped into the Science classroom, letting the door swing closed behind her in Yuffie's face.

-

Festival arrived, finally. The group was up at 10 o'clock sharp, but Mr. Leonhart had asked the group to be there at 8:30 in order to watch the two groups in front of them and warm-up.

Namine was going to be there, to cheer on her friends and to hope that Selphie and Yuffie would be getting along once again after the festival. And, being Namine, she had walked with Kairi, Selphie, and Yuffie to Destiny High. (How lucky they were that the Islands Festival was hosted at their school.)

The walk was rather awkward, since Yuffie and Selphie refused to walk next to each other, Namine and Kairi created a barrier between the two sides. Namine and Kairi talked a little bit, just to try to clear up the tension. Every so often, Yuffie or Selphie would join the conversation, only to recive a glare from the other girl.

"Kairi, I don't get it." Namine spoke barely in a whisper. "I thought that they would have made up by now."

"Well..." Kairi responded in the same hushed volume. "One day, Mr. Leonhart asked them to just try to work together in a really harsh way, and well, then it didn't work out so well in the end."

"I see. But why can't they just get over themselves?"

"I don't know, either... but I really can't stand it being like this for any longer."

"Neither can I." Namine looked down. There was obviously something else troubling her.

"Namine... what's wrong? I know that it's not just their-" Kairi rasied her eyebrows toward Selphie- "fight."

"Well..." Namine took a long breath, then moaned. "Roxas found out that I was diabetic. I don't know how... and he's just been worse. So much worse."

Kairi put a comforting arm around Namine. "You can stand up to him. You just need the right time... and meanwhile, just don't let what he does or says to you get to your head. He's probably just jealous or something."

Namine giggled. "Jealous? Of what?"

"Um..." Kairi was speechless. "I don't know, but you're so much better than that idiot ever will be, Namine." She smiled.

Through their conversation, they didn't realize that they had slipped behind, and were about thirty paces behind the other two party members.

-

"Yuffie..." the small girl said, as calmly as possible.

"What?" The other girl snapped back at her.

"I'm really sorry. I mean... I'm really REALLY sorry. I wouldn't be more sorry if I had dropped a huge uneaten ice cream cone."

Yuffie was silent. Was this a trick? No... it was Selphie. She wasn't exactly bright enough to play tricks with your emotions. "I guess... I'm sorry, too, then." She smiled at Selphie. "I guess I shouldn't have made that comment about Tidus..."

"It's okay. I think I'm over him anyway-"

"-No you're not! You are SO TOTALLY NOT!" Yuffie smirked; she knew that she was right.

"Fine, I'm not."

The two girls giggled together as they approached the auditorium of Destiny High. "KAIRI! NAMINE! HURRY UP!" They screamed for the other two girls.

-

"You three," Mr. Leonhart said, "are late. I didn't expect this from you."

"We were-" Yuffie started. "Um..."

"Preoccupied." Selphie finished for her.

"Right." He said, then remembering their fight, he let their lateness go. "Sit and watch, kids." The four friends sat together in the audience.

"Hey," Mr. Leonhart tapped Namine's shoulder. "Could you please sit somewhere else? This is reserved for the orchestra members only."

Namine looked at Kairi, who gave her a look that said, "Sorry." Namine got up, walked to the section of the auditorium next to theirs. "I'll be okay." she mouthed to Kairi, who still had a worried look on her face.

-

At 9:30, the orchestra was lead into tiny and cramped ensamble room. Mr. Leonhart tried to keep the chaos down, but the group couldn't contain themselves. "Okay, I want violas to my left, 1st violins to my right, 2nds to my far right, and basses and cellos to my far left. Try to get your instrument in tune as close as possible- Selphie will lead us in tuning on stage, the way that we practiced yesterday. I know that we don't exactly have stands in here, but let's try to get "The Idylls of Pegasus" in once before we're onstage."

As soon as he finished speaking, a low roar rose up in the room in everyone's attempt to find their stand partner and music folder in the small room.

Running through the music was chaos, with everyone looking down at their music in an awkward position and the cellos attempting to play without chairs. By the time they had reached measure 50, Mr. Leonhart just cut everone off and held his head in his hands as everyone else conversed around him.

An older Destiny High orchestra member popped into the room about twenty minutes later, beckoning to Mr. Leonhart that they were up in ten. Mr. Leonhart did his usual stand tapping to quiet everyone down, and said, "Basses and cellos get onstage first. Violins and Violas, get in order, and follow Kairi."

Kairi waited her turn with her instrument, and slowly trudged toward the stage door. A girl was holding it out for her. "Thanks," Kairi muttered as she half-tripped onto the stage.

Their command was to stay standing on stage until the whole orchestra got on, and then they were signaled to sit.

The performance was running smoothly, although everyone was slightly rushing. Kairi had hit a wrong note here and there, but she wasn't playing too loudly, and she hoped that it wasn't noticable by the judges.

In between their second and their last piece, the infamous "The Idylls of Pegasus," Kairi accidentally let her bow hit her string in the utter silence. She quickly tried to cut it off by covering her strings with her hand, but the whole orchestra still set a glare on her. Mr. Leonhart also looked at her, but he looked away a second later to try to calm the rest of the group down. "It's okay," he whispered. "You guys are doing good."

They switched their music, and were about to start. Mr. Leonhart's hands were at his sides, then turned to face Sora, and raised his hands up to give him the cue to start his solo.

Why did it seem to Kairi that Sora had been getting better at his solo every day? And every day, as he got better at his solo, her self-esteem went a little bit lower. She grumbled to herself, but inside her head, so no one would yell at her to shut up.

She felt a nudge at her side. It was her stand parnter- Sora's solo was over, and now it was time for the rest of the piece to start. She had missed her cue, being in her daydream. She mentally kicked herself, and told herself not to drift off again.

The rest of the piece was not what was expected. Although Yuffie and Selphie were no longer fighting, Selphie had become so accustomed to rushing, and Yuffie had been so accustomed to playing at her own pace that the piece was comepletely falling apart. Kairi herself was struggling with the shifts in the back.

Finally, at the end, the piece finally came together once again, and they gave a good finish... if no one in the audience was musically trained, that is. Unfortunately, the judges were watching very intently and making many notes.

Mr. Leonhart put down his hands in distress. He knew what rating the judges were going to give them- because of a big mess up. Why didn't he choose an easier for the group? It was going to be an all-time low record for the school.

He sadly led the group off the stage in an organized fashion, and led them to the orchestra room- where they would have a clinic with the judges.

The judge, with a name tag that said, "Mr. Strife" on it, was holding the door for the orchestra when they were at the room. Mr. Leonhart sat dejectedly in the back, preparing to wince for the comments that the judge was going to give the orchestra.

All of the kids silently walked to the seats, all knowing that they didn't play their best.

"Okay, kids." The blonde haired judge sat on the chair at the conductors stand. Every single eye in the room was on him, begging to know what they had gotten. "I guess there's no point in trying to delay the inevitable. You guys... slightly disappointed all of us. We expected more out of one of the top freshman orchestra in the Islands. Maybe our hopes were just a little too high- you guys recieve a 'Good.'"

The whole orchestra seemed to groan, all upset with themselves.

"It's okay, it's just a rating. It's not the end of the world- and of course, you guys have the Northern Islands festival next semester to make up for it. So, let's get down to business. I think you all know what your weakest piece was- The Idylls of Pegasus."

The class spoke no words as they pulled out the dreaded sheet of music.

"Mr. Leonhart, I'm not sure what you were thinking, but this piece is made for a higher level orchestra. I'm not saying that this orchestra is bad, I'm just saying that your hopes were a little too high."

The teacher regrettably nodded in the corner.

"Let's start with a few good things. Violas, you were completely together the whole time. You sounded like one big viola, which is what we aim for." He turned to Sora. "Very, very good Solo." He grinned, then turned 180 degrees to face Selphie. "You too." They both gave a small nod in appreciation.

"But for the rest- I doubt if thirty minutes would be enough to get this piece right. Cellos, you were FAR from being together. Your intonation was all over the place. 1sts, you were all going at different tempos. 2nds, you were right along with them. Has Mr. Leonhart ever told you guys to follow the conductor if you don't feel you're on tempo?"

A wave of nods went through the orchestra. "Well, you need to practice it a bit more. Let's start... at measure 40. I'm going to count out loud for all of you."

He snapped while he was counting, and he was following Yuffie's tempo- slower than they were used to. Needless to say, everything felt dragged. Mr. Strife cut off the orchestra, and turned to the cellos. "Cellos, you are completely out of tune. Start at 56, please." He cut them off about two measures later, and said, "Do you guys practice scales?" They all nodded like little robots. "You need to practice them more- they'll help you all get 3rd position and the positions higher than that better." He seemed to be looking at Kairi while he was speaking.

The rest of the thirty minutes were spent with the judge constantly stopping each section and individually speaking to each. He looked at his watch. "It's time for me to let you guys go. I know you are a talented bunch, you just need to practice a bit more- I'll look foreward to seeing you at the Northern Islands festival in April."

He let the group pack up, and finally, some people had the nerve to speak. Kairi's stand partner was one of them. "I can't believe you. You don't even bother to count- being in orchestra means absolutely NOTHING to you, does it?" She glared at Kairi. "Wait 'til you get a piece of Sora's mind. He talks to all of us individually after each festival and concert."

Kairi wanted to retort back. Really, she did. But two wrongs didn't make a right- so she held her tongue. And she wasn't about to deny that she wasn't paying attention during their "The Idylls of Pegasus" entrance. She really has some nerve, Kairi thought. Saying that orchestra meant nothing to me.

She noticed that Sora was walking toward her while she was slowly packing up her instrument. "You." He seemed upset. "Are bringing down the whole section. Kairi, I've told you everything that I could have to try to help you- and yet you still bring the rest of us down like this." He paused to try to collect his temper. "I'd suggest learning how to count this weekend. And possibly doing nothing but practicing."

"I can't believe you!" She had lost it. "You all say that orchestra is all about teamwork. And yet, then you go around- just being such a sore loser! If you thought that orchestra was so troublesome, why didn't you just go to Julliard solo the way that they wanted you to?"

"Because-"

She interrupted his excuse. "I have REALLY had enough of all of you in orchestra. You act so stuck up, so much like you're better than everyone else, and I'm not going to be a part of you any longer." She set her cello down on the ground, and waltzed out the door.

Sora watched her, disappointed at first, but then his frown turned into a smirk. "It'll be better without you, anyway." He told the door that Kairi let swing behind her. Afterwards, he picked up his cello to walk home.

-

End notes: Okay, I have to say, the measures & fingerings for "The Idylls of Pegasus" most likely aren't exactly accurate- but I have a reason, because I don't have that piece in front of me. Nor may I ever again. But if I do, I'll be sure to change it so it's at least a bit more accurate in the measures & where the parts that are easily messed up are & stuff...

oh, and btw...

REVIEW! haha... first time I've asked for them in a long time... but I want to get at least 50 by the time this story is posted. && you should review because this is this longest chapter in the story. So please make me happy & thanks to the people who already have reviewed!


	8. Chapter 7: Without Orchestra

A/N: bwahahaha. New Chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts...

Chapter 7: Without Orchestra

Kairi shakily walked into the counselor's office the Monday morning, to get a course change request. Was she making the right decision? Yes... she assured herself that she was; she couldn't deal with Sora's short temper or critisism any longer.

"Good Morning... you're Kairi, right? You wanted to get a course change?"

Kairi gave a nod.

"Okay, here's the slip. You need to get the signature of the teacher of the class you're switching out of, and return it to me by Wednesday. We'll try to get your new schedule to you by Thursday, but don't be surprised if you have to wait another day."

"Okay."

"You're lucky, Kairi. If you had waited another week, we couldn't have let you switch- It would have been too late in the semester by then. I'll let you run along so you can do whatever you do before school now."

"Thank you." Kairi gave a small smile.

"Good luck with your new class!" The counselor waved as Kairi walked out the door.

Namine was waiting outside the door for Kairi. She hadn't had a chance yet to tell Yuffie or Selphie, nor was she ready for the reaction that she was afraid they'd have. She feared being mobbed day and night by Selphie... but then, who wasn't? Yuffie would be equally upset, but she would let it go... after about a month.

"So, how was it?" Namine asked.

"It worked out fine. I'm going to take Spanish instead of Orchestra."

"That's a good choice. Hopefully your schedule won't be severely changed... that would be awful!"

"Yeah, I know..."

They walked in silence toward the English hall for a little bit, only to meet up with Yuffie and Selphie. 

"KAIRI! I can't wait to get our new music today!"

"Ha, nice joke there, Selphie. Mr. Leonhart is going to give us one huge lecture about how bad we did first." Yuffie grumbled.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Yuff!" Selphie put her hands on her hips. "We didn't do that bad..."

"I'm just telling the truth..."

"So that's why we need a third opinion! Kairi, what do you think?"

"I don't know. I'm quitting anyway," she blurted out a little too fast.

"WHAT?" Looks of horror rested on her friends' faces.

"Why? When?" Selphie now resembled a bull that was seeing red.

"I'd rather not say why, and next week."

Selphie sighed. Yuffie, on the other hand, looked at Namine. "Do you know why?"

Namine shook her head. "She won't tell me, either. I still think you guys did good at festival, though." She changed the subject.

"SEE! She agrees with me, Yuffie!"

"Whatever." Yuffie rolled her eyes.

-

Kairi walked into the orchestra room after lunch that day. She went over to the cello rack, like she normally did. She walked over to the folders, and pulled hers out, just like she normally did. And then, she went to her chair, just like she normally did.

Except today wasn't normal. She knew that, her friends knew that, and, well, we could say that Sora knew that.

After she sat put her cello down to the side and lay her folder on the stand, she walked right over to Mr. Leonhart's office. THIS was the part of the day that was not supposed to be normal. And it was the part that would change everything. 

The door seemed to be a mile away, at the speed that Kairi was walking. Oh... hurry up, she whined to her legs. A few minutes later, her hand was touching the silver knob of the door with the plaque that said, "Squall Leonhart." She nervously turned the handle, and walked in.

"Hi." The teacher seemed to be cheerier than usual today, despite what had happened on Saturday. "What can I help you with?"

He seemed so cheery that Kairi felt heartless ruining his good mood. She regrettably and slowly pulled out the sheet that the counselor had given her. His face suddenly turned grim at the the sight of it.

"Kairi... don't tell me you're quitting so soon."

"Well..." she found her voice. "I realized on Saturday that this is not my thing." She gave him a slight look of pity.

He held his forehead in his hands. "Kairi, does the whole summer of learning the cello mean nothing to you? I can tell you right now that you're more talented than half of the kids in that room." He pointed over to the orchestra room.

Was this something that he told everyone that was quitting? "Well... the summer did mean something to me... it was a brand new experience. But now, it's not so brand new... and it's not something that I want to do for the rest of my high school years." Could he tell that she was lying? She felt the exact opposite of what she was saying; but she couldn't tell him the truth- that she simply did not want to be around most of the people in the room. Mostly, the first chair cello player. And possibly the second.

He seemed to honor that answer, but still didn't completely give up. "Okay. I'll let you off the hook. But," he paused as he neatly signed the line on the paper. "promise me that this will just be a trial period of quitting. Please come back and tell me if you really want to stay out of orchestra after this month- I promise I won't bite your head off. If you really like your life better without us, I can't make you come back."

Easy enough condition, Kairi thought. "Sure. Thanks, Mr. Leonhart. I'll be gone... after this week."

"Okay. Until then, you still have to play with us, okay?"

"Okay." 

Kairi walked quickly out the door with relief washing over her. He hadn't been as upset as she thought that he would be; and he had let her go fairly quickly.

Sora's arm brushed passed hers as she walked to toward her seat. "Sorry." he grinned.

She glared as he walked in the other direction. He had some nerve approaching her after what he said Saturday... she scowled as she sat in her seat.

Her stand partner smirked as she sat down. "Quitting so soon?" she asked, having seen the paper in Kairi's hand.

"What's it to you?" She shot back.

"I'd just be happier if you stayed- so I wouldn't be last chair, you know." The smirk seemed to grow a bit wider.

"Right..." Kairi had no other comeback.

Their little squabble was interrupted as class started the same way it always did- with Mr. Leonhart tapping the stand loudly for everyone to SHUT UP. Except, instead of putting on the A tone the way he usually did, he waited for everyone to settle down and he started a his miniature speech.

"Okay, I don't know how to say it to you guys, but... you disapointed me on Saturday. You really did. And it wasn't just the music part of it; it was the fact that about two-thirds of you were at least 5 minutes late to watching the groups before us, also. And after all of my begging... I really canNOT believe that Mr. Strife had to talk to you like that on Saturday. You guys deserve so much more... and I think that everyone, including Mr. Strife, knew that. So, this time... I'm going to be testing harder on chair auditions, I'm NOT going to tolerate this talking before class, and if you're late, sorry, you lose ten percent of your concert grade."

Moans and groans flooded through the classroom- everyone was upset. How did this happen? Now, the image they had shown the Islands was now scarred.

"Well... for now, I'm going to give you easier music; you taught me that you obviously aren't ready for that kind of level. Everyone, please get your music together and pass it up."

A huge rustle of papers followed his commands. A few minutes later, the stack was neatly in his arms, and he walked into the office to get the music for the upcoming concert. He briskly walked back out, with another stack of papers in his arms.

He handed a chunk of the stack to the basses that he passed by. When he approached his own conductor's stand, he handed another stash to Sora, and then to Yuffie, Selphie, and the principal 2nd violinist. The last stack was soon passed down to Kairi, who guiltily put it away.

-

Thursday was the first day of Kairi's new schedule. Just as she had hoped, only one class had been changed- Orchestra to Spanish.

It was an awkward day, no doubt about it. Kairi would be thinking about and looking foreward to orchestra... only to glace and the freshly printed sheet to see that it wasn't on there anymore.

Selphie and Yuffie seemed to be ignoring her, and although Selphie was usually unnaturally happy... today she was unnaturally sad. Yuffie wasn't her usually talkative self- she was grouchy, and a bit snappy... not only to Selphie.

Namine had seemed to be the only cheerful one of the group. She was chatting a little bit more than usual, and was proudly holding the blue ribbon that she had recived from the art contest she entered.

In English, the grouchy old teacher was convinced that her class was talking too much, and once again, rearranged the seats that everyone was in. And now, she had thought of an actual arrangement- one that was boy-girl. Guess who Namine was put next to? Yuffie had begged the teacher to be put behind her, but Namine had said no, she'd take care of it herself.

Lunch had finally came. The usual roar of giggles and talking were ceased today. It was like back when Yuffie and Selphie were fighting- everything was so quiet that it seemed that the world would end if you made the slightest sound.

Finally, after thirty minutes of silence at the table, Yuffie spoke.

"Kairi, fess up. WHY did you quit orchestra? Everyone's been wondering that, and it's our job to know."

Kairi decided to use the same lie that she had fooled Mr. Leonhart with. "It wasn't for me."

"It was just because we did so bad at the festival, wasn't it?"

"No, it was because I realized that cello was a huge pain in the ass so I quit."

Selphie popped into the arguement with sad eyes. "Kairi, that's not it. I know that it's not. We all know you better than that. Please tell us... we won't tell Mr. Leonhart or anyone else in orchestra." Her voice softened a bit.

"It was..." she took a deep breath. "Everyone in that class was such a jerk to me! They all treated me as if I was just the sore thumb that stuck out, and I just couldn't STAND how half of them acted like they were better than most of the school!" she sighed.

Namine patted her back. "It's okay, Kairi... I feel just like that in English... especially now since I have to sit next to," she scowled, "Roxas."

"Kairi," Yuffie's expression changed. "I'm so sorry... I guess it's just something that we all do, since we're like... a clique, you know?"

"But it's wrong! You all know it is..." Kairi felt sudden anger towards Yuffie.

"She's right." Selphie agreed with Kairi. "I understand why you quit now, Kai. I still think you're making a wrong decision, though."

Just to comfort her orchestra friends, Kairi added, "When I was talking to Mr. Leonhart, he told me to think of it as a trial period of quitting... I guess you guys can think of it like that, too, and I'll make my final decision after this month." Although I'm going to stay out of orchestra... she told herself.

Selphie and Yuffie suddenly had an evil glint in their eyes. "Okay!"

Namine smiled. "You guys are so cute. I think that's what my next art project is going to be about."

-

Kairi and Namine walked into the Foreign Language hallway. Kairi's new class was just a few doors down from Namine's. She had reviewed the little Spanish that she had known last night, and hoped for the best in this class today.

"Wish me luck," Kairi said.

"Good luck." Namine let out a small giggle, then the two of them separated into their classrooms.

When Kairi entered the classroom, there was just something about it that completely hit her in the face. Maybe it was the huge noise level. Maybe it was the odd smell of spices in the room. Or maybe it was just that she didn't know one face in the room, not even the teacher.

Everyone in the room seemed to look at her, just like someone would to a new kid at school. Well, technically... Kairi WAS the new kid, but not at the school. She walked over to the teacher, and handed her the schedule that Kairi was given this morning. The teacher glanced at it and wrote her name in her gradebook. She then handed it back to Kairi.

When the bell rang for class to start, the teacher came up to the front of the classroom to take roll. After, she started to speak in Spanish, obviously talking about their plan for today.

Kairi listened intently to what the teacher was saying. She didn't understand all of it, but a good chunk she already knew and tried to figure out the rest. This class was going to keep her on her toes. At least it would be better than orchestra.

The teacher was now handing out worksheets to everyone in the class. Kairi was now staring into a thousand words that she knew nothing of. The teacher noticed this, and she told Kairi in a heavy Spanish accent, "Don't worry. I'll help you with it so you can catch up. The most of this class isn't too bright anyway." She grinned.

Kairi grinned back. This class was going to be fun, even though she didn't know anyone. She made the right decision- she was sure of it.

The class passed by quickly, with Kairi taking note of everything the teacher had said. It was mostly review of what they had learned in eighth grade, just pushed onto her shoulders quicklier and with less instruction.

As much as Kairi had learned to like the Spanish class within the first day, she was relieved when the bell rang. The class was overwelming- always people chiming in when the teacher was talking, even though some of the comments WERE a bit funny. The constant hum of whispering in the background was also annoying beyond belief. Especially since Kairi was seated in the back and she could barely hear the teacher over the talking.

But as much as she felt like whining, she felt content. This was better than orchestra ANY DAY.

-

Meanwhile, fifth hour in the orchestra room was total chaos. Mr. Leonhart had no time to stop the group from talking, since he was busy looking for the music that Kairi had supposedly returned to him on Friday. He had urged the kids to practice on their own, but his urging was totally and completely useless.

Sora was bugged, too. He wasn't on top of his game the way he usually was, and missed his entrance about three times. There was something about the sound of the cellos that used to be there, but wasn't anymore. He never bothered to look behind him to see who wasn't here- which was usually the case when the sound was different.

Finally, when class was almost over, he realized what was wrong- there was no stumbling or out-of-tune-ness. Kairi was gone. But she wasn't absent today, was she? Not that he'd been stalking her, but his sensitive ears would have sworn that he had heard her voice this morning.

He recalled what she had said after their portion of the festival was over. Something along the lines of them all being stuck up... something about... quitting? Wait, she was serious? He groaned to himself- it was his fault, completely his fault...

-

Kairi smiled to herself when she got home. She was free; free from practice, free from the monthly rent, and most of all, free from Sora.

Tommorow she would return her cello. And then, soon after, she'd be able to use her pay check for what she wanted.

The days of happiness had begun.

-

Review! Thank you guys for the reviews on the last chapter! 


	9. Chapter 8: Art

A/N: WHHEEEE... I am on a roll. oh btw aNiMe-AzN-aNgEl... Namine gets plenty of attention in this chappie. :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 8: Art

It was an odd, odd feeling... to be without orchestra.

Not that Kairi didn't like it; it felt completely relaxing.

That weekend, just as she had planned, she returned her cello. It was, most definately, not an easy thing to do. Not as easy as she had hoped.

It wasn't exactly easy to face Sora, ESPECIALLY since that he was the last person she wanted to see or run into. But knowing her luck, and knowing that Sora practically lived at that music store, she ran into him.

Actually, she tried hiding first. She casually walked in, with her hood over her head, and over to the counter, hoping that it wasn't the lady that had rented the cello out to her.

And guess what?

It was. And she recognized Kairi.

"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you around in forever! Sora, your girlfriend's here!" She screamed like a hyperactive mother yearning to match up her son together with someone, ANYONE.

Damn, Kairi thought, she totally blew my cover! She refrained from blushing when Sora walked over, and gave both of them a cold glance.

She tried to be friendly. Really, she did. So she gave him the best smile that she could form with her mouth. And, since there was no use of her wearing the hood on her head any longer, she took it off. 

"So, what's up, Kairi? You need new strings? Or maybe a rehair? Or are you upgrading to get a new cello?" The hyperactive "mother" continued to ramble on.

"No," Kairi bluntly cut her off. "I'm returning it. I've decided to quit orchestra."

"Oh, Kairi... let me have a talk with you." The woman signaled for Sora to leave, and he did, gladly. She bent down, and whispered in Kairi's ear. "Is it because you and Sora broke up?"

Now, Kairi was sure that she was blushing. Who would want to have any sort of romantic relationship with the person who had denied you the right to do what you had wanted to do your whole life? She wanted to slap the woman away, or at least scream "no" as loudly as her lungs would allow her to.

Okay, so that was a bit dramatic, and not completely the truth- Sora didn't deny her the right to be in orchestra, but he seemed to want her out. No, he almost forced her out with the way that he spoke to her at festival.

She didn't want to deal with the immature store worker any longer, so she firmly said, "Could I please just return the cello and be done with it?"

The lady sighed, and held her forhead in her hands. "I was a huge fan of you guys as a couple, but okay."

What a crazy woman, Kairi thought. But she let her comment go, and casually walked out the door as soon as the woman took up the cello that was once Kairi's.

Once the door swung shut behind her, she heard it creak open again. She assumed that it was someone else just coming out of the shop, so she continued on walking.

"Kairi!" She almost turned around when she heard the male's voice, but didn't.

She heard the footsteps of someone running close behind her, but continued to look foreward and walk. A few seconds later, the person put a hand on her shoulder.

"Kairi, stop. Can't we talk about this calmly?"

"What's there to talk about? I quit, end of the story. It's not like you didn't get a previous warning. And you're really one to be speaking calmly." 

He sighed. "Look, Kairi..."

He couldn't bring himself to say it. Maybe it was below his dignity, maybe he just didn't feel strongly enough to bring her back.

"Bye, Sora." She walked at a faster pace to get away from him.

This time, he didn't chase after her, or call to her. His throat felt dry, and his legs felt stiff and unbendable. After taking a few silent gulps, he turned around, and started to walk back into the store.

-

That was on Saturday. And now it was Monday. She had a nice, relaxing weekend- despite the troubles she faced to return her cello, and despite the fact that her co-workers looked at her funny when she was bouncing around at work.

She got up early, with more energy than ever before. She was ready about ten minutes before she usually was, and, amazingly, was on time in meeting Yuffie and Selphie at their usual corner.

There was no awkwardness, and no other uncomforable feelings around the group, but it felt... a bit too much like last year.

Too much like last year, Kairi realized, when Yuffie and Selphie were happily talking about orchestra, Namine was finishing the last touches on all of her sketches, and Kairi was just... there.

Nothing more.

Maybe it was exclusion?

No, Namine talked to her. Selphie and Yuffie occasionally asked for her opinion as a tiebreaker on whatever they were arguing about...

But there was something missing.

"Kairi, I want you to see this." Namine flipped her sketchbook to a page near the middle. Kairi looked over her shoulder, shugging off the feeling that was flooding through her body.

It was a sketch, but it looked like a photo. There was the frame, and inside the frame was a picture that was taken at the outing that they had gone to as eighth graders. They were sitting in front of a campfire, with their arms around each other. Selphie had a huge grin on, Namine was smiling sweetly, Kairi wasn't even looking into the camera, and Yuffie was trying to look tough.

"Wow, is that what you did for that one project for Art? "

"Yup," Namine smiled proudly.

"That was a really good idea. I just took a picture out of a magazine and copied it."

"Hey, don't tell Selphie about this..." Namine said, "because this is going to be her Christmas present. I'm going to paint it on a canvas and give it to her."

Kairi teased, "Working on Christmas presents so early?"

"Well, it's going to take me a while... don't make fun of me!"

Namine really WAS growing a litte bit out of her shell- she was so much more confident around her friends... but was still, even after so long, an easy target for Roxas. He never teased anyone else- so why Namine?

-

The day crept by slowly, didn't all Mondays have that effect on people?

During lunch, the same feeling that Kairi felt that morning was coming back. The feeling that she couldn't describe. And when she walked with Namine towards her Spanish classroom, she felt empty. Like something had gone wrong.

"Anything wrong?"

Kairi snapped out of the trance that she had put herself in.

"You just seemed kind of distant there..."

She sighed. "I just feel... so empty. Like something's missing."

Namine smiled. "You'll be fine, Kairi. And you'll find that missing something soon, so don't worry."

"I guess..." Kairi slipped into the Spanish room.

-

Sora realized what was missing from the cello section today.

It was her tone. The tone of the cello. Not just the quality of the instrument, but the way she played it.

Kairi was obsessed with vibrato... he rested his arm on the body of his cello as he was comprehending what was going on.

Back in middle school, so was Miss Heartilly. She would always tell them that they weren't using enough, but this year, Mr. Leonhart couldn't care as much. He cared for balance, level, and quality- NOT quanitity- of technique.

No, he was not missing her.

Because if he really was, he'd have begged her to come back on Saturday.

He stared at how stiff Tidus looked. How did the guy get second chair? He only used vibrato on whole notes, never cued, or moved with the rest of the orchestra.

Yes, he was feeling quite grouchy and critical today.

He listened to the other cellists. They had no emotion, either. Where was the life in the cello section?

Mr. Leonhart had stopped conducting. "Cellos. We're not getting the musical quality that it needs. And Sora, stop daydreaming."

He realized that he had not be playing for the past, oh, let's say, twenty or so measures. He shamefully looked down as Tidus had snickered. Maybe he should have watched who he was criticising.

-

Art. The most relaxing class of the day. At least to Kairi and Namine it was.

The teacher had made it clear at the beginning of the year that the grades were based purely on behavior and how hard they tried in her class. Meaning that they couldn't just splatter paint on canvas and say the project was done.

But today...

Today just seemed like torture. Their new assignment was purely... unexpected.

"For your next project, I want you to all go into some sort of elective classroom, and draw a scene of the class in action. I have contacted all of the teachers about this, and they have said that it was fine, as long as there is absolutely NO talking or distracting your friends in the class. If you get caught... you'll come back here, and you'll have a pile of essays to be writing for me."

Chatter flew through the class. Everyone was talking about where they were going, who they were going with, and what they were going to draw. Kairi, herself, just wanted to stay away from the orchestra room.

"Hey, Kairi. Let's go watch strolling strings!" Namine smiled.

"Um, Namine... I don't really want to go there..." And face Sora, she thought.

"Oh, Kairi. You're going to be around it for the next four years even after you quit because of Yuffie and Selphie... so why not go now?"

Maybe the change for Namine wasn't that great. She was now slightly more demanding, and from observing people for so long, she pretty good at convincing.

"Why not go to drama?" Kairi smiled, knowing that Namine still wasn't exactly brave enough to go to a class alone, with none of her friends with her.

"Nah, I think I'll stick with the strolling strings."

Kairi realized that when she went there, she would be with Yuffie and Selphie. Silly me... she thought to herself. And well, she didn't exactly want to wander into the drama room herself, not knowing a single person.

"Okay, okay... I'll go with you... don't be too upset if I'm grouchy, though." 

Namine grinned, knowing she had won. She proceeded to drag Kairi out to the music hallway. She knocked on the door, and when Mr. Leonhart nodded to them, the two of them slipped in with their sketchbooks.

"Hello, girls." Mr. Leonhart greeted them. "What are you here for?"

"Art." Kairi spoke for them.

"Oh, yes. I got an e-mail from your teacher. You can sit over there." He beckoned to the single desk in the corner with two chairs under it.

Kairi felt Sora's eyes on her while she walked over to the desk. She tried her hardest to ignore them... but after she did, she couldn't help but look up and see those blue eyes staring through her. She could tell because there was no music in front of him.

And then she thought, did he miss her? Why else would he chase after her the way he did that day...

No, he was the one who kicked her out.

He was the one who totally dissed her cello playing.

So, she decided to take the chance to ignore him.

She ignored him for the whole class period, as she sketched away.

They were in their formation for their upcoming street performance, where the violins and violas would stroll around. Hence the name, strolling strings. The cellos stayed onstage, and the basses behind them.

First, she sketched their formation, with the people as stick figures and their instruments as an iregualar shape. She would add the detail later.

She could hear their joyous music ringing in her ears. Funny how strolling strings always played the happiest music. And because of that, Kairi felt the teeniest bit cheerier.

She looked around the whole orchestra, and could not only see, but feel the happiness that everyone was giving out the way that people on parade floats would throw out candy to the little children.

She carefully picked out which stick figure would end up being Yuffie, and which one Selphie. And, in her mind, although she wouldn't admit it, she picked out the one that would be Sora, too. She worked on those first.

Was this what she was missing? The cheerful music of an orchestra? Or was it the joy of sketching that she usually avoided in art?

She was curious to see what Namine was drawing. She took a little peak over her friend's shoulder. She could see that Namine chose to concentrate her artwork onto one person, and she saw the face of that person in the orchestra, sitting on a bass stool playing the double bass.

Wasn't that Riku, the sophmore bassist? Why had Namine chosen him, out of every other member of the strolling strings?

Kairi shrugged off the idea that Namine might have had a crush on the bassist. She went back to her own drawing, to perfect Yuffie and Selphie's faces. The rest would just be random people- it didn't really matter who, the important ones were her friends.

While she was sketching, she reminiced back to when she was in orchestra. They would always be yapping, and always teasing Mr. Leonhart, despite his grunts and muttering about their behavior. And Mr. Leonhart would always pick on someone for the day to tease. She had always wondered how he was able to keep a straight face teasing them, while the rest of the orchestra would almost fall out of their chairs, laughing.

Was it a mistake?

No, she just wasn't used to the fact she wasn't in orchestra anymore- it had only been a week, after all.

When it was time to leave to go back to art and put away everything, Kairi looked back into the orchestra room...

...and felt like she had lost what she had wanted, once again.

-

"Hey, look, it's the diabetic girl!" A familiar voice rang through Namine's ears. She wanted to cover her ears, and tell herself that he wasn't there, behind her, but by now she had realized it was childist to do so.

She was walking out from French, the only class that she had alone. Alone meaning without her friends, without the little group that she was always with. Well, there was usually Kairi, who had Spanish in the same hall, but she wasn't here today. Just her luck.

Namine, you can do this, it's okay... she told herself, you wanted to be able to stand up for yourself now, didn't you? She took a deep breath that was probably visable to him.

Him, Roxas. The boy that had been teasing her since the first day of high school.

Why couldn't he just go away? Namine moaned as she felt pixi stick powder get into her white-blonde hair. She shook her head to get the sticky powder out of her hair, but it didn't work. The little crystals had hung onto her hair like lice.

Roxas was eating a Snickers bar. He hend another out to Namine, and asked, "Hey, you want it?" He seemed to gasp. "Oh, whoops... I forgot that you were diabetic."

Yeah, right. As she walked off as fast as her legs would take her, she felt sprayed by more pixi stick powder. What did Selphie like so much about that stuff, anyway?

He was catching up to her. She could hear his breathing as she tried to walk just a little bit faster, and wondered if she should take a detour to the orchestra room to be with Yuffie and Selphie.

She heard his footsteps stop, and another voice. Namine prayed that it was their French teacher, who Roxas was NOT on good terms with. Her teacher would have him wash her hair until all of the sugary substance was out. AND she would make him sweep up the mess, every speck of it. She favored Namine, anyway.

But it wasn't. It was someone else, her second choice. But she never would have guessed that her second choice, Riku, would have been the one.

Really. He didn't know of her existance. The only reason she knew of his was because she went to the strolling strings room for art. And he had been her eye candy from the beginning.

He had picked Roxas up by the shirt, and said, "Don't bully that girl anymore. I'll report you to the principal for harassment."

Roxas raised an eyebrow, and tried to be smart. "Oh? What's he going to do about it?"

"Do you really want to see for yourself?" Riku had an evil glint in his eye now.

Suddenly, it seemed as if Roxas became a totally different person. He was shaking under Riku's grasp, and Riku set him down. "Take that as a warning."

Namine shyly observed her savior as he walked up to her. "You okay?" He comfortingly put his hand on her shoulder.

She blushed, and gave a small nod. "Th-thanks."

"No problem. Hopefully he won't have the nerve to bother you again. But you know what I think?" Was he teasing her?

"Wh-wh-what?"

"I think he likes you." Riku then waved to her as he walked off.

No, that couldn't be it. Riku... that guy was wong. There was no way that Roxas could have liked her, and there was no way that she could ever like Roxas. And if that day came, the universe would end. 


	10. Chapter 9: Final Decision

A/N: YAY for chapter 9! I think this chapter is quite funny, actually. Or maybe that's just me. XD

Oh yes, my new RoxasxNamine fic will be posted sometime this week. I have the prologue written, I just want to edit it a little bit more & then I'll post it... so watch for that, too. Also... House of Melodies Chapter 5 will also be coming this week. -end shameless plugs-

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 9: Final Decision

Two weeks later, Kairi was still contemplating the feeling that she felt when she walked into the orchestra room, day after day, for the art project.

Every day, she would turn away to avoid Sora's gaze, or Mr. Leonhart's slight glare at her. She didn't want them to think that she was desperate to come back- which she was not. At least, that's what she told herself. But sometimes a voice would tell her that she was lying to herself.

As the days crawled by and Kairi anxiously waited for eighth hour to come, she didn't realize what else was coming up- that being, the big decision that she had promised Mr. Leonhart.

She had thought about it for a little while, but then pushed it aside, avoiding it until the day was to come.

Meanwhile, Spanish class was making her more annoyed than ever before. The once seemingly nice teacher soon became a grouch because of the rudeness of the kids in their class. And the students seemed to enjoy pushing her over the limit- the limit being when she yelled at the whole class at the top of her lungs. Kairi had tried not to hold her ears.

Every day, Kairi would twitch out of anger. She signed up for the class so she could learn Spanish, and get out of being in orchestra. She didn't waste all of that time convincing Mr. Leonhart and the counselor for her to switch out for nothing!

She would feel her temper burning up in her veins, but contained it, remembering how Sora always lost his. She could also feel the temptation to slap the immature guys that acted about two years old, but continued to contain herself.

If this is what Namine has to deal with every day, then... wow, no wonder she's usually so upset! Kairi thought to herself. Although Roxas had been a little bit better to Namine for unknown reasons to Kairi, she could still remember the days where he refused to stop tormenting her poor friend.

The Spanish class itself was also becoming a pain in the behind for Kairi. She felt like she was constantly playing catch-up, especially since the teacher had an obsession with giving quizzes every Friday. And there was also the occasional big test that was given about every three weeks.

The words on the paper in front of her made her dizzy. All she could really make out were a bunch of accents and many, many, a's and o's. Today, her teacher had come up with genius of giving her kids a pop quiz, just to shut them up, of course.

Oh... when is this class going to be over? Kairi moaned under her breath as she stared at the clock. It read 1:30. Ten more minutes to go...

She worked her way through the accents, a's, and o's, and was pretty pleased with the results. It really wasn't so bad; she was just having a bit of an off day. She turned in her paper, and stretched a little bit.

A loud ring filled her ears. The class was finally over, and now she could go meet everybody before Science.

Namine was waiting right outside of the door. Kairi liked to take her time packing up her things, while Namine always rushed to get out. This was usually the reason that Namine was waiting around for her friends...

"Hey," Kairi greeted.

"Hi... how was class?" Namine asked.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Annoying, same stupid guys getting the teacher angry."

"Mhm."

They walked out quickly so they could meet with Yuffie and Selphie in the courtyard before walking towards the Math and Science building. Usually, Kairi and Namine made it there before Yuffie and Selphie, but today, the other two girls were standing around, waiting patiently. Well, Yuffie was waiting patiently, at least.

"Yuffie, when are they going to be here? It's been," Selphie paused to look down at her watch, "thirty seconds! They're usually here way before us!"

"Hey, Selphie." Kairi walked behind her friend and spoke into her ear.

"AH!" Selphie screamed and almost tripped. She turned around to look at Kairi. "HI! Guess what?"

Kairi wondered what Selphie could be so excited about, but then, the girl got excited about everything. "What?"

"Remember how we were all going to go to the Junior High concert together?"

Kairi groaned in her head. Did she really have to bring this up? "Did I ever agree to that?"

Selphie smiled. "YEAH! And you're still coming, even though you quit orchestra... it's tomorrow, remember?"

"Tomorrow?" Had a month really passed by so quickly? "I don't know if I'm free..."

"Oh, Kairi, you agreed, remember?" Now Yuffie was stepping in to defend Selphie. "Don't go back on your promises..." Was it just her, or was Yuffie grinning evilly?

"You know, Kairi, Sora's gonna be there, too..." Selphie gave her a mischievous wink.

"Selphie, I don't like the guy." Kairi crossed her arms to prove a point. "I really don't like the guy."

"Suuure you do..." Now Namine was against her, too? There was no way she could say no now...

"OKAY, OKAY! I'll come."

Selphie and Yuffie high-fived each other, whispering something about "Mr. Leonhart" and "how proud he would be" or something like that. Kairi looked at Namine. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

Namine shook her head, but there was a visible grin on the blonde girl's face. A very wide one, to say the least.

-

Art. Kairi's favorite class, as of now.

Maybe it was just the project their teacher assigned them to do.

But, every day, when she walked into the art room, no, it was the orchestra room to draw, she felt content. And happy. And all of those other joyful emotions that people liked to feel. Unless they were emo, of course.

Today was a bit different, though. When she and Namine had entered the room they usually did, Mr. Leonhart stopped her while Namine went to the table. Namine looked back at her, but assumed that she would be okay.

"Kairi. We need to talk."

What did she do wrong? She was more than a bit intimidated by his glare, so she meekly followed him into his office.

When he closed the door behind her, he asked. "Have you made your decision yet?"

She was confused. "What decision?"

"Don't you remember? About quitting orchestra?"

Suddenly, it all came back to her. It was time, time to make the decision that she had been putting off for a month. And if she was asked to give the decision a month ago, she would have had a solid answer. But now, she wasn't sure...

She sat there silently, twiddling her thumbs. What was she going to say?

"No answer, eh? Well... I'll give you until Friday. If I don't get an answer, I'll assume that you don't want to come back."

Right then, Kairi felt a huge urge to say what she'd been wanting to say. She wanted to come back... Spanish wasn't pleasant, and she missed practicing her cello more than anything in the world.

And, well, even though she could barely admit it, she missed Sora, too. She missed the way that she would get lost in his music.

But she was still thinking twice. She remembered the misery and embarrassment every time she did the slightest thing wrong, and the stress she felt before chair auditions. And, well, the obnoxious stand partners.

She stopped debating with herself when she noticed that Mr. Leonhart was no longer in his office, and music was flooding through the door. She needed to get back to her project.

-

The next day, Kairi was sitting around at home when the doorbell rang. Remembering her mother's paranoia, she took a peek through the peephole just to check who it always, although it was almost always Yuffie, Selphie, Namine, or a combination of the three. Today was special; all three of them were there.

Yes, it was the night that Selphie and Yuffie had been squealing over for months- the Junior High Concert. No, Kairi had not forgotten about it once again nor had she tried to get out of it, although she wished that she could.

Kairi pulled open the door, and dashed outside along with the rest of her friends. She was excited, even though she probably wouldn't admit to it. According to Yuffie and Selphie, Destiny Junior's orchestra this year was exceptional; although "not as good as they were."

They greeted each other, and the walked down the road to their own school, where the concerts of the Junior High were always held at.

"I can't wait to see the little eighth graders this year! I can still remember back when they were sevvies!"

Yuffie gave Selphie a playful punch. "I can remember when WE were sevvies. Oh, back in those days when we all sucked."

"HEY, I didn't suck in seventh grade!"

Namine chuckled, and said, "Okay, let's not fight before we get there. We have to show that we're a dignified audience." Even with the serious words, there were still audible giggles in Namine's voice.

Kairi was silent with a small smile on her face. Sure, she was as joyful and happy as the rest of her friends, but there was always the little tug in the back of her mind. She had to make her decision tomorrow.

Maybe it was obvious to everyone else what she was going to choose, but if the littlest thing went wrong tonight... then she just might stay in Spanish. After all, she didn't want to talk with the counselor again. She just wanted to let it go for tonight.

Except her conscience just wouldn't let her.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the doors of the auditorium of their school. Still dazed, she didn't walk in.

"Kairi! Are you going to come in, or not?" She heard Selphie's voice.

She snapped back into reality. "Coming!" 

Once she was inside, she took a program, and joined her friends in the back of the auditorium. The concert had yet to start, but Selphie and Yuffie were obsessed with coming early to talk with Miss Heartilly. Someone else walked up to them.

"Sora! Riku!" Selphie squealed before she said anything of proper etiquette. At the sound of Riku's name, Namine turned a bit pink and hid her face.

"Hey," Sora greeted the rest of the group, pretending to ignore Selphie. He looked at Kairi. "Why are you here?" he teased.

"Because..."

"To see me?" There was a twinkle in his eye.

"...sure." Kairi answered just to humor him, and looked away. She would not fall for his charm.

"Aww..." he cooed, and patted her on the head the way he did back when he was teaching her.

Kairi ignored him. Maybe he'd go away if she did.

"Sora, where in the heck is Tidus? He said that he'd come! He said he would!" Selphie whined to the two guys.

"Like I said, I don't stalk him. And he didn't say that he'd come, he said he'd try. And try in Tidus's definition means no."

"Plus, Yuna's busy and can't come tonight. He wouldn't come without her." Yuffie chimed in.

Selphie pouted, but quickly got over her disappointment when she realized her real mission for tonight- to get Kairi back into orchestra and to possibly get her closer to Sora. 

There were more people loading into the auditorium now, and if they- all six of them- still wanted to sit together, then they would have to find their seats first and talk later. Selphie noticed this first, and said, "Let's get our seats. I have a whole arrangement set out!"

Kairi rolled her eyes at Selphie's "accomplishment." That girl was obsessed with seating arrangements- she would even bother the teachers into letting her help them when the teachers complained about changing the seats. And, since Selphie's arrangements usually worked out pretty well, no one could exactly say no to her plan.

"So," she continued, glancing at a sheet of paper. "We're going to take a row on the left section, so we can see the cellos and basses clearly. And we'll be in the row right behind the ones that are reserved for the Junior High kids. Sora's on the far end, with Kairi next to him, then there's me, then Yuffie, then Namine, then Riku."

Kairi wanted to scream, What the heck were you on when you came up with this, Selphie? But, instead, she curiously asked why Selphie came up with that.

"Well, the boys will be on the ends, so if someone tries to kidnap us, they can fight them off." Selphie looked at her as if it was obvious, and seemed to care less if Sora or Riku were listening. Thankfully to Kairi and Namine, they weren't.

Yuffie rolled her eyes, but let Selphie continue. "And then you're next to Sora because you guys are together, and Namine is next to Riku because I have a feeling that something's going on, even though she looks soo much cuter with Roxas." 

Namine's face went from pink to a deep shade of red. She was at a loss for words. "But... but..."

Kairi smiled at Namine. "She's kidding." Namine felt a sense of relief wash over her, her face was no longer so dark in color.

"So," Selphie announced, "Let's grab our seats!" She led the way, waving her arm at the row. There were exactly six seats.

The group sat down, and chatted for a while until the lights dimmed.

Kairi tried to ignore Sora the concert, but he kept on whispering to her. About Miss Heartily and how wonderful she was and other stuff that Kairi just didn't feel like contemplating. She had a huge urge to snap at him, to tell him he was being rude, but that would just cause a commotion- something that Kairi did not want.

The concert, to Kairi, was amazing. She was unaware that little just-past-elementary schoolers could play that well, although she could hear criticism from Selphie attempting to whisper to Yuffie.

They all stood up and clapped at the last song, and were relieved to finally be able to talk again, as much as they had enjoyed the music. Well, they had enjoyed it as much as any teenager can enjoy classical music, which is only to a certain point.

It was about eight at that time, and the group needed to start heading home.

-

Sora was trying to find a way to say what he wanted to say. According to Riku, he should practice in the mirror, so he could see himself. After an attempt at that, he laughed it off and assumed that he'd be able to pull it off later.

He wanted her back. Except he couldn't figure out a way to say it. He didn't want to embarrass himself the way he did at the music store a while ago... but there was no rehearsal involved unless he counted "practicing" in front of the mirror; how was he going to know how it would turn out?

Maybe he should just go right up to her and say it. Riku had no problem doing that- but then, Riku was the pretty much the sex symbol of the sophomores at Destiny High. He had confidence in himself for just about everything.

He had tried to talk to Kairi the whole night- but she continued to ignore him. He really couldn't blame her- with what had come out of his mouth a month ago, he wouldn't have wanted to start a conversation with him either.

The concert was over. It was either now... or never.

She had already waved goodbye to Riku, and was walking home with her friends.

What was he to do? His mind only told him one thing, just to go up to her and tell her. He soon seemed to lose control over his body; all he could focus on was the girl in front of him that was slowly disappearing into the distance. He flung himself at her, and held onto her.

She gave him a look of horror. What on earth was he doing?

"Sora?" her voice cut him out of his trance. "Why are you hugging me?"

"Um." He unwrapped his arms around her. "I..."

"What?" She was looking him in the eye.

"I..."

"Hurry up, Kairi! Or we'll ditch you and Sora will have to take you home!" Selphie screamed in the distance.

"I'm sorry, Kairi." What was he talking about? She gave him a slightly blank stare. "Look, Kairi, I don't know how else to say it..." He stopped to think. "But I miss you... in orchestra... I want you to come back." Did he sound desperate?

She didn't know how to answer him. It was an awkward situation; he seemed to be the one looking like a puppy dog, not her.

And then she thought for a while. They walked over to a bench, and sat down, with him staring at her. He was waiting for an answer. And at the moment, he seemed like he would wait forever.

For what seemed to last a lifetime for the both of them, she just sat there, debating with herself. Finally, she said, "I... I will, Sora."

His worried expression soon turned into a goofy grin. "That's awesome!"

Kairi looked around for her friends. "But... there's a problem."

His expression changed as quickly as it had before. "What?"

"Selphie, Yuffie, and Namine decided to go."

He laughed, and then they both got up from the bench. "Riku and I will take you home. Don't worry about that." 

-

REVIEW! 


	11. Chapter 10: Relearned

A/N: Mwahahaha...

Shameless plug: If you haven't already, please check out House of Melodies!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 10: Relearned

The next day, Kairi happily popped into Mr. Leonhart's office to give him the good news that he was hoping for. There was a skip in her step as she walked, because she was trying to prevent herself from running and knocking over the instruments, stands, and chairs. So this is what its like to be Selphie, she thought. Always having to contain your energy inside you, and when it comes out, it explodes.

She hastily knocked on the door of his office, anxiously waiting for him to open it. She hopped from one foot to the other, until she heard the click of the doorknob. He was coming out, finally!

When he came out, he looked at Kairi, wondering if Selphie had taken over her body. She had a gigantic grin on her face, her eyes were twinkling with happiness, and looked as if she was going to bounce off the walls.

"Hello there." He smiled at her, although he was slightly afraid of what was going to happen next.

"I've made my decision."

He mentally let out a sigh of relief- she wasn't going to be hyper and scary the way his best freshman violinist was. "And?" He was still a bit anxious to hear her answer.

Her wide grin seemed to spread wider. "I'm coming back!" She squealed.

The teacher smiled a bit wider. "That's wonderful..."

After a few seconds of silence, Kairi worriedly asked, "How's the counselor going to deal with this?"

Mr. Leonhart let out a small chuckle. "I'll see to that. Be here fifth hour? You can have your old cello."

Kairi nodded, and flew out the door to meet her friends.

-

The four girls at the lunch table were laughing again. About a week ago, it was just a few of them who would be laughing with the other, but now everything was back to where it had been before. 

And now she was laughing loudly with them. She started out as shy as could be, and now, could she possibly be coming out of her shell? Roxas stared at her, the way that he always did. But he was across the cafeteria; there was no way that she would know what he had been doing since the first day that he saw her.

He's slightly backed off since the incident with Riku in the hallway. Oh, how he loathed that sophomore.

Maybe he should try to be nice. Walk over and chat a little... yeah, that would be a good idea. He had finished his lunch already, and it had appeared that they had, too.

He got up to walk over, telling his buddies at his table that he needed to get something. Hopefully they weren't watching him. He casually walked over to the table, pulled out the chair between Namine and Kairi, and said, "Hey." with a smile. 

"Why are you here, Roxas?" Yuffie seemed to glare holes through him.

"I just wanted to have a little chat." His hand mindlessly wandered into Namine's hair, and he started to play with it. Namine blushed, but couldn't bring herself to scootch away. He didn't hear Selphie get up from the table, either. He was busy in his own little world.

He felt a slap across his face. Could it have been Namine? No, he answered his own question as soon as he looked up. Yuffie had been the one doing the slapping. "Get away from our table... and stop harassing Namine!"

Roxas continued to smile, and said, "Fine." He held up his hands to surrender, and walked away.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Yuffie spoke her mind. "That guy has no nerve to do that to you, Namine! You need to defend yourself!"

"It's okay, Yuffie. It was just my hair."

"But he was touching you, and not keeping his hands to himself! Who knows where they've been?"

Selphie started to laugh at the comment. "Yuffie! Calm down!" she sputtered, holding back giggles. She suddenly stopped laughing, "Plus, he so totally likes her. Did you see the way he spaced out?"

"But just because he likes her doesn't mean that he has the right to touch her hair. Plus, I doubt if Namine likes him back. Do you, Namine?" Yuffie looked at her for a confirmation.

"...No."

"See that, Selphie?"

Selphie crossed her arms over her chest and sulked. "But... they looked so cute together!" She continued to argue.

This time, it was Kairi's turn to burst out into giggles. She had been watching the whole time, keeping her laughter to herself. Now, she could no longer contain it and just let it all ring out into the already-loud cafeteria.

"I think we should drop the subject now." Namine tried to smile.

-

Kairi happily bounced into the orchestra room, along with Yuffie and Selphie. Today would be wonderful- actually, much more than wonderful. Everything that she had wanted was now in place... and she could have her happily ever after. 

Unfortunately, happily ever after didn't come as easily as it seemed. Chair auditions had come and gone. Kairi was once again sitting in last chair, and felt a little bit disappointed. She also barely knew the music, and would clash with the rest of her cello section once again.

Mr. Leonhart handed her the music that they had been working on before the tardy bell rung and the tuner was set up to tune. Thank God Kairi hadn't forgotten how.

After tuning, Mr. Leonhart took the chance to talk before the class did.

"Welcome back our old friend, Kairi." He waved out his arm towards her. She slightly slumped down in her seat, not wanting to be stared at by the 60 other people in the room. Sora turned around and smiled at her.

She noticed that Tidus was no longer sitting next to Sora; he was now third, and some other girl was now sitting next to him. They were talking about something, and Kairi had now immediately felt jealous.

The voice in her head told her to stop. She didn't own Sora; she barely even knew him. He had the right to talk to other girls, didn't he? But then... she whined to her concience. But then, what? her concience replied. You wish that his full attention was still on you, don't you? A frustrated frown formed onto Kairi's face.

Mr. Leonhart had come up with a new way of teaching since Kairi had quit- he now wrote the pieces that they were going to play on the board, instead of constantly calling each one out. It was pretty hard to shout over so many people in one room, especially if they were noisy people like the ones in their orchestra.

"Okay, first piece, guys. Let's go." He adjusted the metronome to fit the tempo of the piece, and then raised his hands in the air.

Kairi struggled with the pieces, but since the festival music was harder, she felt the notes and rhythm come more easily than they did when she was first starting. It felt odd to hold the bow in her hand again, and every so often she'd feel like she would drop it.

Her stand partner was much more pleasant to be around than the last. She was more considerate, and would politely ask Kairi if she needed help with the fingering. However, she wasn't the best cellist by far, and her fingerings would always confuse Kairi.

As class came to a close, Kairi felt herself feeling melancholy. She hung on to what time there was left, and soon there wasn't any more. It was just a short fifty minutes a day, but she had wanted it to last forever. She slowly packed up her cello, knowing that Selphie would probably yell at her later for making Namine wait for them.

"Hey." She heard Sora's voice. "You need help on your music?" He knew her answer already.

"Yeah..." she mummbled, "but I'll be okay," she lied. She didn't want to rely on him for everything... 

"I'll help you anyway." He smirked, knowing he had won. "When?"

"How about never?" This time, she smirked.

Sora put on a fake face of disappoinment. "But I was looking foreward to our wonderful nights together again!"

Tidus had only heard "nights together," and immediately walked over, ready to start lecturing them about sex. "What HAVE you two been up to?"

They both looked at Tidus as if he was insane, and Sora said, "It's none of your business." Then, they both walked over to the cello rack to put their instruments away.

Tidus raised an eyebrow at the two, and then went to talk to Yuna about what he had heard.

-

Kairi came in during lunch to practice the next week. She would have avoided it, knowing that Sora would be there, but she had work today, and she really, desperately needed to work on her music. She really didn't get why she was still avoiding him, though. Maybe, she told herself, it's because I don't want him to still see me as the needy newbie.

She slipped as quietly and unnoticably as she could into the orchestra room. There was nobody in there except for Mr. Leonhart typing something (she assumed it was an e-mail) and eating lunch.

She walked over to the cello rack, and carefully, as always, walked with it to her chair, getting the school's folder of music on the way. She didn't hesitate to take her cello out of its case and start practicing the many parts that she needed to work on.

She was frustrated with herself- she just could NOT get this rhythm right! As many times as she had tried to count and subdivide, it still sounded weird and out-of-place.

As she skipped that horrid part in her music and continued on to the next, she heard someone else playing along side her. Frustrated that she was not in tune with the other person, she stopped to see who it was.

And guess who it was. He had timed himself so that he would get there AFTER she did, and while she was lost in her music.

"Do you need help?"

There was no denying it now. "Fine. Help me. I don't get this, this, and that." She pointed the lines out on the page in front of her.

"Alright." He spoke calmly, and brought her through the passages step by step. He would stop everytime something was out of tune, and wait for her to correct herself.

Don't rush, he told himself about every other note that they were playing together. Be patient with her...

Every so often, though, he would have to stop, to change her fingerings, becuase they were a bit weird. They just made the already fairly hard song even more complex. He would also occasionally change the bowings that they had changed in class.

After her notes were in tune, they played it in rhythm. After that, Sora would speed up the tempo and they would continue to play, until they had reached the speed the rest of the class was going. He did this with every passage, and then asked her to play the whole page by herself. She did it, almost as well as he had.

He really could not believe his ears. Was she really the girl that hadn't picked up a bow until this summer? Could she really have been the one with almost no musical experience at all?

And his constant reminder to himself to be patient had paid off. By the time the bell rang, Kairi had those three passages down pat, even the one with the complicated rhythm.

"So," she spoke. "Could you help me tommorow again? Because we only got through one page..."

"I thought that you would be okay." He teased.

"Then I'll be fine without you." She whacked him on the head with her music.

He feigned a look of hurt again. This seemed oddly familiar. "If you really don't want the best cello player in the school to help you..."

"Oh, hush. I'll let you help me if you don't get too full of yourself."

"Okay. Let's shake on it."

Kairi giggled. She then stuck out her hand for him to shake.

He really isn't that bad after all, she thought. He's actually fun to joke around with... not the jerk that I saw before.

As he shook her hand, he felt something that he hadn't felt before... his heart rate quickened, and his cheeks felt very... warm. Of course he had liked girls before; he wasn't a prude! But his cello always seemed to come before them. Excecpt now, it didn't feel that way- His cello felt insignificant, compared to her.

He shrugged the feeling off. Sure, she was cute... but wasn't saying that she came before his cello... a bit extreme?

Kairi waved a hand in front of his face. "Sora, you there? My stand partner wants to sit in her seat."

He could feel the girl staring at him, and quickly got up to leave. "Sorry," he muttered as he brushed past the girl.

He was really losing his touch. First, he went crazy over getting Kairi back into orchestra, but why, oh why, was he falling for her now?

-

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	12. Chapter 11: Falling

A/N: Ahahahaha. Yay for a new chapter! oh & just a warning... little bit of Yuffie angst. I'll leave it up for you guys to find out what it's about, of course I don't want to spoil it for you! 

Also, I have a sidestory to this fic coming soon- either today or tommorow. It'll be posted as it's own story, so keep watch for that.

I have yet another new fic called For Good- a collection of one-shots & drabbles focusing on friendship. Please go check that out, I want some feedback on whether I should continue to add to it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 11: Falling

The November wind gave Kairi the chills as she walked outside. She really wasn't ready for it to be this cold, so she ran back inside to grab a scarf and a thicker jacket. Why must it be so cold? She asked herself. She wondered how Yuffie and Selphie's instruments were supposed to survive in the freezing weather of the Northern Islands.

She remembered how Selphie would go to extreme percautions to protect her instrument, Pixi, in 7th grade. She wrapped in this thick gauze, and it looked bulkier than a cello. Yuffie had laughed at her, and said that the case should have been fine protecting it. After the embarassment, Selphie realized it would be okay, and the next day, returned the big roll of gauze back to wherever she bought it.

She giggled at the thought of Selphie trying it again this year, since the temperatures were colder than usual for the Islands.

"What are you laughing at?" It was Selphie herself, she had met Kairi where they usually did. "Is it my huge bulky coat? Because I'm freezing!"

"Nothing... I was just thinking."

"Oh." Selphie smiled. "I can't wait for it to snow. Even though our strolling gig will probably we canceled if it does."

"I'm sorry... I know how much you look foreward to those. Where's Yuffie, anyway?"

"I stopped by her house... she seems sick..."

"Oh? What did she have?"

"I don't know. I didn't see her, her mom came and told me she wasn't feeling good and probably wouldn't come to school today."

Silence arosed between the two girls as they walked toward the school, shivering from the cold.

"Hey, guys!" Namine waved to them, with a huge smiled on her face. She stopped when she saw the girls. "What's wrong?"

"Yuffie isn't feeling too well."

A look of concern spread onto Namine's face. Maybe she knew something that the other two didn't? "Oh... well... Yuffie hasn't exactly looked the best since that Thursday that we went to the Junior High concert."

"But that was two weeks ago! Sickness doesn't stay that long, does it?" Selphie burst out.

"I'm sure she's fine, Selphie." Kairi patted her friend on the shoulder. "She kind of overdid herself this year. Even with viola and strolling, she still did cross country and fencing, remember? Maybe she just needs a day of rest."

"I hope that's all that she needs..." Selphie genuinely missed Yuffie, and it had only been less than half an hour into their day.

Namine didn't know what to say. She knew the real reason why Yuffie was missing school today- because of Mr. Leonhart. They had talked on the phone the night before, while Selphie was raving to Kairi about something during their phone call.

Namine continued to keep to herself. After all, Yuffie didn't exactly want everyone to know- and that was what you got if you didn't tell Selphie when she was in her "serious" mode.

Her debate on whether to tell her best friends the truth was cut short when she heard a loud thud her left. They had reached school, and were in the courtyard by then. Namine hadn't absorbed a single word of Selphie and Kairi's conversation until then, although they had been speaking to her, also.

Kairi had fallen to the ground, tripping on the sidewalk. Her face had, luckily, landed in the grass, but one of her knees were scraped pretty badly.

She was lucky that they usually came to school fairly early- before most people came, so she really didn't have much to be embarassed about. Except for the fact that a certain brunette had watched her fall.

He rushed to her side, crouching down to see if she was okay. He held out his hand for her to get up. "You okay?" He put the kindest expression that he could muster on his face.

Kairi recognized the voice. It was Sora, and it was so weird to see him outside of the orchestra room. It was like the thought of little kids when they first started school- that their teachers lived, ate, breathed, and slept in their classroom all day and night. Except it was with Sora, and the orchestra room, and Kairi was a freshman in high school.

She looked up at him, and blushed. He was really the last person that she wanted to see her fall, but hey, she had to deal. She took his hand and said, "Thanks," trying to hide her red face.

He took a look at her knee, and winced. It must've been a pretty bad fall, seeing all the blood on there. It took Kairi a while to realize what he'd been staring at, and then, all of a sudden, the pain of the scrape hit her.

"OW!"

"A little slow there, eh?" He teased. He continued to hold her hand. "You want me to take you to the nurse?"

"NO WAY!" Selphie answered for her. "Me and Namine are going for her!" She grabbed Kairi's hand out of Sora's, and dragged Kairi and Namine with her towards the nurse's office.

Since when did Selphie get so protective? Kairi wondered. Selphine continued to drag the confused two girls until they had reached the nurse's office, well out of earshot of Sora.

"Did you see that? Did you see that?" The girl seemed to be recovered from the saddness she was fazed with about five minutes earlier.

"Did I see what?" Kairi was more confused now than ever by Selphie's exclamation.

"He loves you! He loves you!"

All the other two girls could do was raise an eyebrow.

"See, he like, fought me to get to you first! Didn't you see that, Namine?" She winked at the blonde girl. Now she was no longer confused.

"Uh, yeah." Namine was holding back giggles. Selphie's matchmaking idea was NOT going to work.

"Sure, Selphie." The wound was now throbbing in her leg. "Could you please let me go to the nurse now?"

Selphie, giggling, opened the door for Kairi as she limped into the small white room. Namine now let her giggles run free, but in the back of her mind, she was still wondering about Yuffie's situation.

-

Yuffie sat up in bed and looked through her window. She couldn't run away forever... but if there was one time where she could, now would be when she would want to. She'd take her cross country shoes and run as far as she could without stopping... and at the moment, that stopping place would only be three miles away from home...

But that would work. It didn't matter how far she ran, just as long as she got away from where she was.

Why did this happen to her? Why was she the only one who had ever fallen for a teacher? Everyone had fallen for someone at least around their own age... Selphie with Tidus, Namine with Riku, and Kairi with whoever. But she was sure that Kairi would never fall for Mr. Leonhart, or any other teacher for that matter, the way she did.

She tried to ignore the feeling, but it was just too much to ignore now. It was sort of like letting dough rise in a closed container- one day, it was just going to burst the container. And yesterday was when her container of love for the teacher had finally bursted.

It wasn't something that had just taken place a few months ago- ever since honor orchestra in sixth grade, when she first saw the way he conducted and treated his students.

On the outside, he seemed a bit emotionless and "no fun," as Selphie would say, but Yuffie knew, even as a naive sixth grader, that there was more to him than that.

And that was three years ago. She was surprised that she was even able to contain it for so long.

But it wouldn't work out- just as any student-teacher relationship wouldn't have. She had prayed that he at least felt the same way she did, because he always seemed to open up to her more than he did to his other students. Maybe she was just comparing herself to the other violists, whom he'd never paid much to attention to anyway.

Her hopes stayed high. She supported everything he did- even occasionally went to the high school concerts and wherever the strolling gigs were by herself the years before. She had begged Miss Heartilly to let her join strolling in eighth grade, asking if she could take her last hour class out and take it at the high school.

But the teacher had said no, You had to be in a Destiny HIGH orchestra... and Destiny Junior just wasn't good enough, apparently, to be in the Strolling strings.

It wasn't just because of physical attraction that Yuffie liked Mr. Leonhart. It was the way he taught; how he would teach not only about technique and your music, but about teamwork and musicallity. He was... purely amazing, from Yuffie's eyes. The man could do no wrong. He never openly criticised someone's playing, although he wouldn't make a smart comment every so often. And it wasn't just admiration. It was a feeling...

That the music... rang together. It never clashed, and it was only possible for it to come together beautifully, like a weaving. A weaving of the notes.

She hated Miss Heartilly. Okay, she didn't hate her. Her conducting and teaching skills were almost the same as Mr. Leonhart's... but she was the one obnoxious piece of string that found its way into the weaving and would not allow the weaving to continue. If it did, then nothing would be right.

She broke her heart. In eighth grade, the same year she denied Yuffie strolling, Selphie had used her "uber ways to find out gossip" and found out that Miss Heartilly had been dating Mr. Leonhart. It killed her inside, and a hatred for Miss Heartilly grew out of that.

Yuffie wandered over to her bathroom. She looked in the mirror, and saw a blotched face with red eyes. She had been crying... crying since she had gotten home last night. Since she could just let loose.

She had told Namine everything- and hadn't realized how close she was to the blonde girl until last night. And she hadn't realized how good of a listener she was, and how good she was at giving advice.

And she had listened to it. It was okay to cry. And she needed to wait for her heart to tell her the answer.

But Yuffie was never patient. She couldn't wait.

And the chain of events- everything that seemed to happen one after the other- hit her like a rock.

She was first in the music hallway congratualating the Junior High kids on their first concert, telling them how wonderful they were, blah blah blah. She decided to go see what Mr. Leonhart was up to, just because she was curious...

And then she walked into a makeout session between her ex-teacher and her current teacher. Blushing, she ran out of the room, pinching herself just to make sure that she wasn't living in some nightmare.

As Yuffie thought of the memory, tears streamed down her face. For a year, she had lied to herself. She had told her that Squall never really like Rinoa, and just went out with her because of the position they carried. But maybe... maybe they really did have feelings for each other.

And then... yesterday, she just couldn't contain it anymore. She had to tell him her feelings... the ones that had been there for almost three years.

All he could say was, "I'm sorry, but I don't feel the same. And even if I did..." He looked down at her in disappointment, "nothing would work out right."

She felt her heart stop. How could he? How could he just throw away her feelings like that? She care about what society thought of student-teacher relationships anymore. All she could think of... was to be with him...

She looked through her window, and gazed at her own reflection on the shiny glass. How did this happen in one day? Before, she was the queen of the violas... the lead runner on the girl's cross country team... an amazing fencer, despite the fact that she had just started this year...

And then it shattered. Furious, she slammed her fist into the window. It broke, and shattered into a million pieces- half a million landing outside on the patio, the other half million on the floor of her room. Just like her life.

She would have to pay for that later. But she felt better. At least for now she did.

-

The lunch table was as loud and noisy as ever. Selphie told some joke, and Namine and Kairi giggled- not because of the joke, but of the expression on Selphie's face. No one really understood Selphie's jokes, anyway, but there was something completely contagious about her laugh.

Namine laughed the loudest, almost as if she was in a contest with someone.

"Hey, Namine... you seem awfully happy today."

"Yeah."

"Might I ask why?" Kairi sounded like she was at some business meeting.

"Because I finally told Roxas to fuck off." She grinned.

Selphie was shocked. Namine had never used that word before... never outloud, and never inentionally toward a person. And now, all hopes of her and Roxas getting together had vanished.

"What?" She gaped.

"He won't be bothering me anymore."

"But... what about..."

"Selphie... it's okay." Namine spoke with sudden boldness. "I have my eyes on someone else, anyway."

"Wow... is it really happening? She's crawling out of her shell! I'm so proud of her!" Kairi slapped an arm around Namine's shoulders.

"Me too!" Selphie squealed, seeming to be ignoring the fact that there was, in no way, that Namine and Roxas would ever be together.

"Hey, I've got to go to the orchestra room." Kairi suddenly seemed very aware of how fast time was going by. Today was her day to meet with Sora, after all.

"'Kay! Bye!" The other two girls waved.

Kairi walked along her usual path toward the orchestra room, feeling a bit nauceous. Now, that was funny... she was feeling fine just a moment ago, joking with Namine and Selphie, but now the thought of having to spend time alone with Sora...

She just felt queasy in her stomach. Like she was going to throw up her lunch. Why did she feel this way? She wasn't going to run... so she sucked in her gut, and entered the room. They sat together at their usual spot, at Kairi's stand.

"Hi..." her voice sounded a bit soft around him.

She turned away, and tried to ignore the fact that she was going to be alone with him. She didn't want to be alone with him... she prayed that someone else would come in... her stand partner, Selphie, even some older kid that she barely even knew!

There was no avoiding him once she started walking toward her seat. Her heart was thumping, and it felt like it had crawled up to her throat. Why did she feel this way?

And then she looked into his eyes... they were deep blue, and she had always thought they were pretty... but now she felt like she would be falling forever into them.

And his messy hair... she wanted to ruffle it... to make it messier than it already was... and play with it.

What was this feeling? And why had it come up all of a sudden?

And it hit her...

He was the only guy that had ever thought of helping her up... or maybe that was only part of this new feeling.

Struggling to contain her emotions, she shakily got out her music. She didn't have much of a problem with the pieces now; it was just a mistake here, and out of tune now there... and occasionally a note worth grimicing at...

"Okay, let's start with this piece." He took it out, and shook it so the other page would flop out. "Want me to play with you? You don't look very confident today."

"No... I'm fine... it was just something I ate."

She started off fine with her piece, and with each measure a sense of nervousness grew. No, she told herself... You know this passage, don't worry. And every other note, she would slip.

"Okay, okay." Sora stopped her. "Let's do this a little bit slower. You were rushing, anyway."

Was her nervousness really that visible? "Okay," she said, while looking at him.

She could feel herself falling into those eyes again... and he didn't seem to move. Was time stopping for them?

The ring of the bell made Kairi realize that time, most definately, was not stopping for either. She nervously looked away, and muttered a "thanks."

"You're welcome." Sora grinned, and ruffled her hair.

Normally, she would have gotten angry with him for teasing her like that... but today, she welcomed it. His hand felt... comforting?

Kairi shook her hair and went back to the music. Now that Sora was gone, she didn't feel nervous, and played much better.

-

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keep watching for the sidestory. tEEhEE.


	13. Chapter 12: Moneyless

A/N: Hahaha, I took my updating break. Break. Yeah.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."

Chapter 12: Moneyless

Kairi grumbled as she wiped down the counter at the pretzel store. The manager had yelled at her for being about twenty seconds late to work, according to "his time." It wasn't her fault! It was such a busy day at the mall, and she couldn't exactly squeeze through everyone and their bulky shopping bags.

For being late, the manager had cut some money off her paycheck. Why did it work that way for her? Everytime someone else was late by about twenty seconds, they didn't get money cut off of theirs! It was ageism... they were discriminating against her just because she was the youngest person working there!

She wanted to go to the music store to re-rent her cello, although she was, most definitely, not looking forward to meeting with Sora's "friend" who worked there. Personally, she scared Kairi... a lot. Was it normal for an adult to be just as hyper as Selphie?

The lady wasn't the only barrier between her and getting her cello back. Because of her "substantial" cut in income, she wasn't sure if she could still pay for the rent. And there was no way that she would burden her mother further with asking for more money. She stopped doing that once she had gotten her job. Although Kairi could deal with the lady, she could not deal with the money problems.

"Kairi!" A grouchy old worker came out, and saw her mindlessly wiping the counter. "Stop wasting your time wiping that thing when it's already clean! Knowing you, you'll probably get it dirty all over again!"

Kairi rolled her eyes. She had a full day's work ahead of her, and it was not going to be a pleasant experience. Not that work ever really was.

She went back behind the counter and put the rag away. She was first up to be the cashier.

-

"Yuffie, which one should I get?" Selphie held up to scores of music, one being "Spring" and the other "Winter"- both from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Yuffie, who was busy flipping through the books of viola music, lost grip of the books she was holding and the music flew everywhere. "Selphie! Look at what you made me do!" She came today because she was over the trauma that she had faced last week, and needed to have a little bit of fun. Sadly, this WAS their idea, as orch-dorks, of fun- going on a shopping spree for sheet music.

"Sorry!" Selphie giggled, and put down her two books of music to help Yuffie pick up what she had dropped. When they had finished picking up the scattered books, Selphie turned to look at her friend again. "Well?"

"Hmm..." Yuffie brought her hand to her chin, pretending to be thinking intently. A second later, she grabbed "Winter" and put it back on the shelf. "Spring. Because it suits you better."

"Okies! What were you planning to get, Yuffie?"

"I don't know. No one likes to write solo viola music."

"Then I'll help you look!" Selphie ran over to the stack that Yuffie was looking at earlier. She flipped through the books, putting them aside as she decided that they weren't right. "You should play Vivaldi with me, Yuffie." She was disappointed when she found that the store didn't have Vivaldi music for viola. "Ah, poop. Let's look at what else they have." She continued to flip through the pile as Yuffie looked over her shoulder. "AH-HAH! You should play this!" She held up a book. "Elegies are pretty!"

Yuffie flipped through the book. She was satisfied. "Let's go pay, then. Wait, I need to get a new set of strings first."

"I thought you had a set?"

"Well, it's that time of year again..." She meant it was the time every year when she changed all of the strings of her viola.

Selphie giggled. "Okay. Want me to wait in line for you?" This Saturday was busy at the store, and there was a pretty long line to the single cashier.

"Okay."

Selphie impatiently waited in line. "Grr..." She stomped her foot. "Why must everyone come the same day we do? And why must there only be one cashier?"

"Because it's Saturday, and everyone loves to come to the music store on Saturday. And because the rest of the workers help with the instrument rentals." She heard a voice. She turned to see a familiar brunette.

"HI, SORA!" She jumped up.

"Hi." He thought that approaching the girl might have been a mistake, and backed away a little bit. He was relieved when Yuffie came.

"What are you doing here, Sora?" The other girl asked.

"Nothing, really."

"Hey, Yuffie?" The smaller girl turned to the other one and whispered something in her ear. They both giggled.

"Since you're not doing anything, wanna come to the mall with us?" Selphie giggled.

It was now their turn to pay in line. They quickly did so, and then looked at Sora again for an answer to their question.

He wasn't sure what the two were up to... and he wasn't sure if he could trust Selphie with her crazy antics. But hey, he had absolutely nothing else to do, so why not? "Sure..." he answered, a bit warily.

"Okay!" Selphie grabbed Yuffie and Sora's arms and dragged them out the door. It wasn't until they were outside when she let go of their grip. When she did, there were red marks on both of their arms.

"Selphie... I think I can follow you on my own." Sora said, examining the mark on his arm. "You don't exactly need to lead us around like dogs."

"Yeah. Let's go." Yuffie agreed, also staring at the red marks on her own arm. The three of them walked inside, and told Sora about their plans.

"We're going to see your love." Selphie giggled and smirked.

"My love?" He was confused. Very confused.

"Kairi?" Yuffie said, as if everyone knew.

"She's not my love..." He managed to sputter out in a very passive tone.

"Riight..." both girls said at the same time. They had reached the pretzel shop where Kairi was working at the counter, and both ran off into the store next to it.

"Huh?" It took him a second to realize that both of them had run off- he thought that they just wanted to be quiet for a change.

-

Kairi moodily rested her head on her arm as she waited for the next customer. Business was going well today, and everyone seemed to be a bit happier- except for her. She wished that she could be running around with her friends at the mall the same way most girls and guys were.

Another person came up to her, and ordered. And then another, and another. They soon formed a long line. Kairi was busily pressing the buttons on the machine and putting the receipts aside while half-screaming what the person in front of her ordered.

She had seen several people from school today, and she felt even grouchier about that. They didn't tease her- most people who went to Destiny High were fairly respectable- but she couldn't help but feel jealous.

As much as she tried to cheer herself up saying that this would be going into buying a new cello, and no longer renting.

When the line disappeared, Kairi let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, the rush is over."

She looked around a little bit more for possibly customers, but her eyes landed on a boy with spiky brown hair. He had his back turned to her, so she couldn't be sure that it was who she thought it was.

Was it him? She couldn't completely tell... not until he turned around and his eyes locked with hers. Her heart jumped, and butterflies gathered in her stomach. She would've rather had ANYONE but him come see her where she was working. And, well, it was a bit odd to see him here, realizing that he practically lived at the music store right in front of the mall. Why'd he come here today? She asked herself.

He moved, and her heart took another leap. He was walked towards her, at the counter. "Hey," he said. Was his voice a little bit shaky?

"Hi... what would you like to order?" She kept her job in her mind.

"Nothing. Why are you working here, anyway?"

She didn't want to answer. She'd rather die a horrible death and burn in hell than embarrass herself with the answer to that question.

But she wasn't in control of what was coming out of her mouth anymore. Maybe she was angered inside, but she hadn't been in good control of her feelings lately. As she opened her mouth to speak, neither she nor Sora was ready for what was to come out of her mouth.

"I don't have money, okay? And there's nothing that I can do about it except for get a job at the only place that will accept someone so young- and I'm taunted on the weekends, where I see so many people at school from here, and they're all having fun and spending money, while I'm struggling to even pay RENT for a cello which I haven't been able to re-rent ever since I started orchestra again!"

She took in a big breath, and felt as if tears were going to come out of her eyes. She waited to feel them on her face, but she didn't. She knew they were coming out... wait...

She opened her eyes to see Sora's hand underneath them, wiping her tears away. Oh, this was embarrassing beyond belief! She prayed to God that her co-workers weren't paying attention...

"It's okay to cry, Kairi. Just hang in there, things will get better soon." He looked at his watch, then back at her. "Hey, when does your shift end?"

She looked at the clock inside the shop. "3 o'clock. In two hours."

"Come meet me by the movie theater then."

She didn't know what to say, but she had to agree. Something just told her to, plus her heart was doing somersaults inside her ribcage. "Okay..."

"Hey, Kairi! Stop flirting with that guy at the counter!"

She felt a deep blush crawl to her face. So they had been paying attention. Now, all she could hope for was that they didn't see her crying like an idiot.

"So I'll see you later?" Sora smiled at her.

She tried to smile back. "Yeah."

-

"OHMIGOD! Yuffie, did you see that?" Selphie squealed as she peeked through the door where Sora was.

"Yeah, Selphie, calm down."

"It worked! It worked it worked it worked it worked!"

Yuffie tried not to laugh, but she cracked a small smile. "Maybe they're just going as friends."

"NUH-UH!" Selphie shook her head. "Did you see the way he looked at her when she was crying?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean..."

"They're in love!" Selphie finished her sentence for her.

"It's not like you're going to get Kairi to admit that to you now." Yuffie argued in her usual teasing tone of voice.

"Oh, I'll get her to. Don't worry."

-

Sora mindlessly wandered around the mall. He did it- he actually asked her out. Sort of.

He had never asked a girl out to anywhere. And why he felt so compelled to ask Kairi was a mystery to him.

It wasn't pity, because he had felt just as strongly about her even before her outbreak about working. Maybe it was just because she looked so beautiful, even when she was crying. But wasn't that a little shallow for such deep feelings?

Well, he was still a little bit confused about his feelings for her. He could have kicked himself for thinking that she might come before his cello one day, but for some reason... he felt it was the complete truth- such a solid truth that his mind couldn't argue with it.

He couldn't wait for her to come with him to the movies... but he still wasn't too sure of himself. Which one would they watch? Of course, he'd pay for her, and not mind...

He was confusing himself again. How could a crush be so confusing and complicated?

He mentally punched himself. He had just admitted that he liked her... in that way. He didn't want to; and he didn't want the day that he had to give her up for cello to come.

"Hey, Sora." Her voice seemed to make him want to melt to the ground.

Why was it like that? If he had told Riku how he felt... man, he would never hear the end of it.

"Umm... Sora?" She waved a hand in front of his face. "I thought I was the one that always spaced out, not you." He could hardly believe that she was the one girl crying at the counter two hours earlier.

"Oh..." he chuckled, and rubbed the back of his head."Hey."

There was that feeling again- the feeling of being nauseous, that feeling that she was going to throw up. Except now, she should add in that her heart was racing at about two hundred beats per minute.

"Which movie do you want to see?" He thought that maybe talking about something would break the tension that he could sense between both of them.

"Umm... I don't really care. You choose." She commanded.

"Okay, let's go see an R rated one, then." He teased. "One with lots of blood and gore and sex."

"Eww... no." She lightly punched him, and giggled, hoping he wasn't serious.

"Then... what do you want to watch?"

She thought about it. There was no movie that she really wanted to see, so she decided to be bold and suggest something else. "Let's not watch a movie. We can walk around and um..."

"Talk?" He finished for her.

She nodded. Her heart was still thumping fast, but it slowed down, just a little. Maybe to about 180 beats.

-

"So that's why you didn't go to Julliard this year?" Kairi asked curiously. They were sitting at a little table inside the food court, eating ice cream. Kairi was nervous about eating in front of a guy- but once the conversation started flowing, all of the nervousness flew away.

"Yeah... I really didn't want to leave my mom at home by herself..."

"Aww, that's so sweet."

Sora smiled. He was kind of glad that they weren't sitting in the movie theater together, with the awkwardness growing in between them. He still didn't understand the feeling... and now that he had told her so much, he felt it grow deeper.

He didn't know what it was- really. It felt deeper than a crush, but not by much. He barely even knew her; he just knew her music.

"I guess you miss your dad a lot, huh?"

"Yeah... I don't know how I've managed without him. He played cello, too... he used to teach me, until I got better than him."

"Aren't we a little full of ourselves?" Kairi teased.

"Hey, it was the truth! My dad was amazing, though... even though he wasn't the best cello player; he'd play his favorite piece at a Christmas Benefit concert every year..."

"Wow... that's really nice of him."

They had finished their ice cream by then, so Sora said, "Hey, you wanna go look at the cellos at the music store?" As soon as her expression changed, he thought he had said something wrong. "I..."

"Sure!" Kairi grinned, and grabbed his hand. "Let's go!"

"Why are girls dragging me everywhere today?" He noticed that she had his hand in hers and thought; At least this is better than having Selphie's death grip on my arm...

When they had reached the store where Sora had started the day, Kairi looked at him and smiled again. "Come on, let's go in!" She had yet to notice that she was still holding Sora's hand.

Once they had walked in, Kairi looked down, and noticed that her hand was still gripping Sora's. She blushed. "Oops... sorry." She let go quickly, but Sora was a little bit upset that she did so soon.

They walked over to the cellos being displayed. Kairi looked over each of them, but there was one that she had her eye on. It was a shiny red-orange, and it looked like it was just polished.

"Sora, look at that one!" She sounded like a little kid watching fireworks. She pointed at the cello that had caught her eye.

"You wanna try it out?" He asked.

She stared back dumbly. "What?"

"You can try it out."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah." He beckoned to a clerk. "Could I see that cello, please?"

The clerk smiled. "Sure." She carefully brought down the cello and handed it to Sora, along with a bow.

"Here." He handed it to Kairi, who was sitting down nearby in a chair.

It took her a few moments for her to get the feel of how to hold this new cello. After she did, she set her bow on the string and played a few notes. The sound that was produced had a beautiful ring, and the other people in the store turned to look at the source of the sound.

"Wow," she giggled. "I love it." She turned to the clerk. "How much is it?"

"Two thousand dollars."

Kairi's eyes widened. She would never, ever in her life be able to afford a cello of that cost- well, at least not until she was about sixty.

The clerk grouchily drummed her fingers on the counter. "Do you want it?"

Kairi looked ashamed. "No... it's a little too much..." She put in the endpin and loosened the bow, and handed the beautiful instrument back to the clerk.

Sora watched the sadness grow in Kairi's eyes. The devastated look made his heart break, and looking at her with that look made him want to do something special for her. Something more special than just taking her out.

And he looked back at the cello. It wasn't an amazingly high class cello, compared to some of the other ones that were up, and the ones that the store could not afford to put up. And yet, she played it with her whole heart and soul- with never ending music, and never ending passion.

As he thought of the way she played, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew what he would do now.

-

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	14. Chapter 13: Surprise!

A/N: BOO!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 13: Surprise

Kairi set down her backpack and opened it to do homework. She took out her planner, some blank notebook paper, and the worksheets that she needed. As she looked for the new worksheets among the old ones, she came across her music.

"Oh yeah, the concert's next week!" She slapped her forehead. "I've gotta practice..." she told herself, but then realized that she still didn't have a cello at home.

She didn't tell Mr. Leonhart that, though. He'd be completely disappointed that she wasn't practicing at home- although she used every moment of her free time at school to practice. She was doing a lot better in the rehearsals during class, and barely ever messed up.

She sighed. There was no way that she was going to get the gorgeous cello that she had found a few weeks ago on her and Sora's "date," as Selphie so called it. She had almost been sure that the girl had planned it and forced Sora to ask her to the movies or whatever. She agreed with Namine and Yuffie that the girl had just a teensy bit too much time on her hands, and too little brains to actually plot something properly.

When she looked at her homework, she groaned. There was just so much stuff to get done, and she was only in her freshman year!

And she was still stressing about cello. She might not have cared about it before, but she didn't want to be stuck as last chair forever. Sora had said that she'd have more than a chance, but she wasn't sure about anything that he said now.

Their relationship was just... different from before. Sure, they were closer, but it was so much more awkward to joke with him... and every time she was around him, she felt her heart racing- almost like she had just run a mile without stopping. So much that she felt like maybe it was time just to give in to Selphie and say that she liked him.

But she couldn't do that- she was his close friend now, and she didn't want to go any farther with him than maybe a little friendly hug here or there. Or did she? She didn't know- it was the time in their lives where almost no one could contemplate their own feelings, so she just let it go. Selphie was the hopeless romantic, not her.

She took another look at the pile of work on her desk, and it just urged her to procrastinate further. There was no way that she was going to get all of this done in one night, and there was no way that she was going to sit down at her desk long enough to finish a piece of it without twitching and thinking about Sora.

Her mother was at work again tonight. Ever since they had gotten divorced, money was a bigger problem than it already had been. Hence, why Kairi had to get her own job. Her mother trusted her to be alone, and not sneak off anywhere in the night while she was gone. But tonight, Kairi felt a little bit rebellious. Sighing to herself, she walked out of the house, making sure to lock the door. I'll just go out for a breath of air, she thought.

Now, which way to go? Who would she go to? She sighed as she turned around. This was totally pointless... maybe she should have just called someone and did homework with them. Plus, it wasn't good to be out alone around seven, when it was already dark...

However, she ignored her conscience, and continued to walk foreword, on the sidewalk. It felt calming... more calming than anything she felt before. As she walked around in a daze, she felt a bump into someone. He or she was taller than her, and the shadow resembled a man...

"AH! GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU PERVERT! I HAVE PEPPER SPRAY!" She pretended to be digging through her pockets when he came closer. "Don't you dare take another step." She raised her arms in a martial-arts type of stance. "I'm a black belt."

Was the man laughing? "Oh, Kairi." She looked at the shadow, and recognized the oh-so-familiar spikes on the head. "You're so funny."

As soon as she realized it was Sora, she blushed. Thank God he can't see me in the shadows... she thought. The familiar race of her heart began to speed up again, and she mentally groaned. Here we go again...

"So what are you doing out so late? A girl like you really shouldn't be out this late... and don't you have homework?" He wagged her finger at her.

"Since when did you become my mom?"

"Since I became worried about you." Did he really mean that, in the same way that she was thinking? "You're kind of far from home. What were you doing anyway?"

"I should be asking you the same thing, mister."

"Well, I just needed a breath of fresh air. And I'm actually somewhat near my house."

She looked at her surroundings. It DID look like Sora's neighborhood, at least from what she had remembered. How far did she wander, anyway?

Deep in her thought, she barely realized that Sora had turned her around, and had his arm around her, slightly pushing her to walk towards her house. When her senses did come back, she screamed, "Agh!" It was the only thing that she could do in a situation like that.

Sora felt his heart sink when she screamed. Did she really flail at his touch? He moved his arm, and muttered. "I'll walk you home. Come on."

"Oh. Okay." Kairi was glad to have someone walk with her, and smiled to herself.

It was silent as they walked through the night. Sora had taken Kairi's scream personally, and had avoided having any sort of physical contact with her. Meanwhile, Kairi was happily in a trance of calm and tranquility.

He decided to break the silence. "So... are you ready for the concert?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah... I guess so. I'm just kind of stressed that I'll be last chair for the rest of this year."

"Psh, Kairi..." He looked at her. "Honestly... I haven't seen anyone play with more passion than you. And, well... passion is everything. No lessons or length of practicing can get you the places that passion can."

She didn't expect something that deep from him. "You... you really think so?"

He winked. "I know so."

Her lips found a way into a smile. "Thanks, Sora." They were in front of her house now.

"Well, I better leave you to go do your homework..."

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. I'd rather have you stay here and talk to me."

Sora looked at his watch. It was only seven-thirty. "Well... I guess that could work."

"Okay." She pulled him down into the grass, and he landed firmly on his behind.

"Oww... Kairi..." he moaned.

"You whiner."

"So? It's not like you don't whine."

And with those sentences, they were led into an hour of endless talking. It was amazing how Kairi wanted to stay there, talking with Sora, having her heart beat a million miles per hour, forever.

And he wanted nothing more than to talk to her forever, look into her eyes, and continue to stare at her features as he spoke.

They probably spoke of almost every topic in the world, from the upcoming orchestra concert to school to Selphie's craziness. Their conversation was endless, with no awkward pauses.

When Sora had to leave that night, Kairi moped into the house, disappointed. Almost as if she had lost her best friend.

-

Concert night. A fairly nerve-wracking night for Kairi, Selphie, and Yuffie. They all met together, along with Namine, at Selphie's house to get ready. There wasn't much they could do; they were all required to wear the same blouses with the same skirts and the same gold sashes around their waists- resembling their school color. But what was troubling them was their makeup.

"That's it," Kairi said, after wiping off her mascara for about the tenth time. "I'm just not going to wear any." She had straightened her hair, not because it had been wavy before, just do it would look neater.

"But you're going to look like a ghost onstage," Namine said. She was the one who was best with makeup, considering that she always been helping out backstage at the school plays since sixth grade.

"Well, I've had it with this mascara! People won't even be looking at my face, so who cares?" She looked at her skirt that reached her feet. "I think I even got some of the black crap on my skirt."

Selphie giggled. "Silly Kairi, black doesn't show up on black."

"Girls? Are you done?" They heard Selphie's mom calling for them, before Kairi could argue back.

"One more minute!" Selphie called back. They were all relieved that one of their parents could drive them to the concert that night. If they had to walk, well, Selphie would probably bring two actual bottles of pepper spray and "accidentally" spray it on some innocent bystander.

Yuffie and Selphie had finished up their own makeup, and had let Kairi off with wearing none. They didn't have time to argue, anyway.

The four of them rushed downstairs and squeezed into Selphie's mother's car, along with Yuffie's viola and Selphie's violin. It was a tight fit, and all of them insisted that they were okay with squeezing in the back seat. It was only about a five minute car ride to Destiny High, anyway.

"So, Kairi..." Selphie said in a teasing voice. "How have you and Sora been getting along? Me and Yuf saw you guys at the mall together."

Kairi rolled her eyes and giggled. Typical Selphie, thinking she was so stealthy... when she wasn't. "We're... doing fine, I guess..."

"So has anything happened yet?" Namine nudged Kairi.

"Oh, be quiet. I should be asking the same for you and Roxas."

They had pulled up to their school's auditorium by then, and Selphie and Yuffie were half-tripping out of the car, holding onto their instruments. "Girls, time for you to go in and get warmed up. I'll be watching you tonight!" Selphie's mother interrupted Namine and Kairi's conversation.

"Okay!"

The girls crawled out of the once-tightly packed car, as people watched them come out, one by one. From a bystander's point of view, it seemed as if it was one of those clown cars, where about ten people are stuffed in a little car.

Namine took a deep breath. "I can breathe again!"

All four of them laughed together. It was the first concert where all four of them went together. Before, it was just Selphie and Yuffie, because they didn't want to rub in the fact that Kairi wasn't in orchestra in her face.

"Hey, Namine, we'll meet you after the concert, okay?" Yuffie said, as they came to the warm-up room.

"Sure. I'll be fine." She walked over to the auditorium, more confidently than ever before.

"You know, Yuffie, Roxas is doing her a lot of good." Selphie commented. "A lot more than what we would have ever thought."

"Yeah..." Yuffie's voice seemed to fade a little, but then brightened as they walked into the room.

-

Kairi nervously shook as she was onstage. There was no way to calm her down- it was her first concert, after all. She was afraid that the same thing would happen at the concert that it did at festival.

When she sat down, she could feel her pulse slightly slowing down. As she played, she remembered the words that Mr. Leonhart had told the orchestra, "If all else fails, just try to hang in there and follow your section."

As she concentrated harder on the music, she felt like she was getting swallowed up by the sound. It wasn't a bad thing; it was just something new, and it had felt a little bit more relaxing.

For the next thirty minutes, she let her music fly away. For some reason, she sounded a bit different from the rest of her section. She nervously checked to make sure she was at the right measure, and she was.

It was her tone... the voice in her music... it seemed to stand out from the rest of them, who were all mashed together.

She tried to join the "mash," but it didn't work. Her fingers, the music, and her cello, refused her to let go of the individuality that it had for those few minutes.

Words couldn't describe the music that flowed from her cello, and words couldn't describe the look on Mr. Leonhart's face when he heard her distinct notes. He was surprised, yes, but in a good way.

After their performance, they sat down and watched the other four groups of Destiny High play. Some of the girls had to dash into the changing rooms to change outfits for strolling, but Kairi just sat calmly in the audience as she watched everyone else.

When the concert was over and there was a huge flood of black, gold, and white back to the orchestra room, Sora found his way to Kairi. He signaled for her to come talk to him after she was packed up.

She quickly slipped her cello and bow into the case, and carried it carefully over to where Sora was talking with Riku. She always wondered why his best friend was a sophomore...

They stopped talking when Kairi came over. "Hey." Riku greeted.

"So what did you want to talk to me about, Sora?" Kairi asked.

Sora smiled. "You were amazing tonight, Kairi. We couldn't believe our ears... seriously."

Kairi was surprised. After she had gotten off stage, she was stressing about how she had sounded different from the rest of the cellos. "Really?"

Riku smiled, too. "Yeah, Kairi, we mean it."

Her smile grew wider. "Thanks, guys. You did great, too."

"You're welcome." He paused to look over his shoulder. "You better run to Selphie before she ditches you again," Sora reminded her.

"Okay. Bye, guys!" She waved, and then grabbed her cello to set on the rack.

When she walked over to Selphie, the brunette girl almost tackled her to the ground. "You were so awesome! We were just talking to Mr. Leonhart and he said that he usually heard that kind of music from people sitting in the front!"

Kairi continued to smile. "Thanks."

They walked over to the back of the auditorium where they met Namine. She hugged each of them, even a fairly resistant Yuffie, and said, "You guys were awesome. Even better than festival."

They all smiled like little angels, and said, "Thanks, Namine!"

When they squeezed into the car again, disappointment washed through the whole car because their concert was over. Although their next one was only in a mere three weeks, Kairi loved the music that they had played for this concert more than any other she had heard before- with the exception of Silent Night. Yuffie was also quieter than usual, and Selphie gazed out the window with a small frown on her face.

"Okay, Kairi... here's your house." They had reached her driveway.

"Thanks, Mrs. Tillmit! Bye, guys!" Kairi waved.

When she walked up to her doorstop with her keys, she noticed a big lump in the darkness. It looked like a package, but it was an extremely big one. She decided to take it inside before opening it.

She dragged it to the living room, and flicked on the light. Kairi couldn't believe her eyes- if her eyes weren't fooling her, someone had left a cello on her doorstep.

She opened the case. Inside, it was the same cello that she had her eye on at the store- the exact same color, with the same shiny-just-polished look, and there was the bow, too.

"Wow... who would get me this?" She wondered out loud. She noticed a tag hanging around the neck of the cello. There was a note.

The note read, "Kairi, please accept this cello so your passion can reach it's full extent. No need to thank me, Sora."

She pinched herself. Was this a dream? There was no way on earth that he would have gotten this for her...

As she felt the pain of her pinch, the cello was still there, shining at her. So it really wasn't a dream...

-

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	15. Chapter 14: Crushing

A/N: Hellloooo children. ;D

Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom Hearts OR White Christmas.

Chapter 14: Crushing

"Wow, Kai... that's your new cello? It's beautiful..."

"Yeah, Mom, it is."

"Did you buy it?"

Kairi gulped. What was she going to say? Maybe now would be just a good of time as ever to lie. "Yeah..."

"I bet you saved a lot of your salary for this."

Kairi nodded.

"I'm really sorry I couldn't make it to your concert... I promise I'll go to the next one, when is it?"

"Like three weeks from now. Selphie says that it's the tightest concert of the year."

"I'll be there for sure, Kairi. Don't worry about it." She gave her daughter a hug.

Kairi wandered up to her room as her mother messed a bit more with her bills in vain. What was Sora thinking, really? She flopped down on her bed, still in her concert attire. Two thousand dollars don't just pop out of anywhere...

She sat up in bed. The next concert was coming up so soon... what was Mr. Leonhart thinking when he scheduled the concerts? Three weeks won't be enough time, she thought. She also remembered that Mr. Leonhart had said there would be no chair testing this concert... everyone else may have been relived, but Kairi sure wasn't.

It suddenly clicked in her mind that tonight would be the last night she would have with those pieces that she loved so much. She quickly sat up, set up her music and her stand, and unpacked her cello...

She began to play, from the beginning. Whether the notes where whole notes or sixteenth, harmony or melody, she embraced them all. She played her heart out- harder than she had played at the concert that night. Except now, it was only her, and her music rang throughout the house. 

After all, this may be the last time she could have a chance to hear it, to play it, to feel it.

-

"KAIRI!" Her mother tore the blanket off of Kairi's back. "What time did you go to bed last night?"

She couldn't remember... all she really could were those sweet melodies running through her head...

She looked around, blankly. She was still wearing her outfit from last night, although now it was crinkled and no longer smooth and pressed. Her new cello was down on its side next to her chair, and her sheets of music had flown everywhere on the floor.

It came to her then... at around 11 PM, she had grown tired, and lazily put her cello to the side, and tried to gather up her music... but then ended up falling straight down on her bed.

"Umm..."

"It's almost time for you to leave. You might want to hurry."

Why must she loose her mind the way she did last night? Of course, it was nice and relaxing to be playing the music... but why didn't she notice the time and pack up her cello and put away everything the way she was supposed to?

She flew around her room, getting dressed for school and putting everything away, and then flew around the bathroom, trying to brush her teeth and hair at the same time. She grabbed her bag, hoping it was closed and nothing would fall out, and then ran downstairs to grab a bagel.

"Hey, Kairi, we were wondering where you were," Selphie teased. "Oversleep again?"

"Yeah..." Kairi ran her hands through her hair, trying to get a few more tangles out.

"Come on, let's get to where we meet Namine. Don't want her to wait around too long."

Kairi nodded, and the three girls walked their usual route to school. Nothing seemed to odd today, except for the fact that Kairi had woken up late.

"Kairi, stop playing with your hair, it's fine!" Yuffie insisted.

"But it's all tangly and messy..."

"Trying to impress someone?" Selphie took this chance to tease her a bit more.

"N-no! I just don't want to look bad!"

"Yeah, in front of Sora." Selphie smirked.

The thought of Sora suddenly made her heart race. What would he think of her messy hair? She hoped that he wouldn't care... after all, she really had to thank him and come up with some way of paying him back.

They had made it to school, Kairi immediately looked for him. She was devistated when she couldn't find him in the courtyard, so she headed to the orchestra room, unaware that she had her three friends trailing along behind her. She was in her own world, in her own trance.

"Look, you guys... she really does like him, I'm serious!" Even Selphie's loud remark was unheard by Kairi.

When she finally reached the orchestra room, she had realized that her friends had been following her all along. "Ahh!" she gave a little shriek out of surprise.

"Little late there, huh?" Namine smiled.

"You mean you've been following me all along?"

"Yes. While you were in your fantasy about Sora."

"Oh... well..." She had a hard time denying her "fantasy." After a few seconds of silence, she found her voice again. "I need to... um... tell him something." She walked into the room, leaving her friends with their ears plastered to the door.

Riku was in the room with Sora when she entered. He almost seemed to know what was going on, because he said, "I'll leave you guys to your talk." He left the room.

Kairi didn't know what to say. The friendship that she had felt just a week or so ago seemed to be a memory away- it was almost as if she didn't know him anymore. She was afraid to speak, not sure what to say. Really, what do you say when something gives you a two thousand dollar gift that's not your parents?

He spoke for her. "It's about the cello, isn't it?"

She nodded and opened her mouth, trying to speak. Nothing would come out. Why were her vocal chords suddenly malfunctioning?

"I want you to have it, Kairi. Don't worry about how much it cost... just think of it as an early Christmas present." He put his hand on her shoulder.

"...Thank you..." was all she could muster.

Sora smiled goofily at her. "How did you like it? I bet you spent all night playing it..."

She felt her heart melt at the smile. Since when did he get so cute and kiddish? He always seemed like the mature, musical type... not so cute... and adorable... and then there were his eyes... she had noticed them from the beginning.

He didn't inturrupt her silence, because he was quiet, too. He was examining her features, too, and looking into her eyes. What kind of words could have described that feeling that he felt inside?

Someone had come in and turned on some soft music. The music had seemed to melt into their minds. Once they had heard the music, they both knew, this was what could describe what they were feeling... when no words could. The bell even rang, and they were both lost in each other. 

The peacefulness and serenity was quickly changed, as soon as the first group of loud chamber players entered the room. The roar of the chitchat and last-minute practicing rang into their ears, as they realized the moment they shared was gone.

Kairi blushed, not realizing that she had been staring at Sora for so long. "Sorry," was the first words that came out of her mouth. "I've... got to get to class." She dashed out of the room. He must think I'm some sort of freak now... she moaned to herself.

Sora felt a pang in his heart as soon as she left the room. He had to get to his first hour, too... but he wanted to stay here, as usual. After all, it was his home. But there was no way he could miss class again after being gone so much.

-

Kairi was mindlessly doodling in the margins of her math homework. She was supposed to be checking it with someone around her, but she didn't feel up to it.

How many hours away was orchestra? She didn't want to wait any longer... she wanted to be next to him again... to feel the music flowing around them...

When she looked down on her paper, there were almost illegible words written in the margins. What she could make out was an S and a K... and the shape around the letters seemed to slightly resemble a heart...

"Kairi!" Selphie scootched closer to her, dragging her desk along with her. "Yuffie and I don't agree on this question. What did you get?"

"Umm... which one?" Kairi didn't want Selphie to see her paper.

"Number 6..."

"I got 3x..."

"How'd you get that? Me and Yuffie both didn't get that!" She leaned over to look at Kairi's paper.

Kairi tried her best to hide her doodles in the margins, but it didn't work. Selphie took control and snatched the paper out of Kairi's hands.

"Kairi... tsk tsk tsk... what have you been thinking of?"

"Umm... nothing?"

"I don't think so, Kairi... what you've been drawing shows it all."

"Shh..." Kairi took her paper back from Selphie. "If I admitted that I liked him, would you stop annoying me about him?"

Selphie thought about it, then brightened. "Yeah!"

"Fine, then I do like him."

"Oh my gosh! I have dreamed of this day all of my life!" Selphie ran over and gave Kairi a huge hug.

Kairi's eyes widened as Selphie tightened her grip. She was causing such a huge commotion in Math that their usually lenient teacher asked her to calm down and sit in her own seat. Selphie quickly did so, because she did not want to be on anybody's bad side- especially the teacher of the class that she had a D- in.

Once Selphie went back to her seat, Kairi continued to daydream. There seemed to be nothing wrong with him... and her mind soon flew very far away from her body.

-

It was finally time for orchestra- the class that Kairi had been daydreaming about all day. Except, now that it had come... she felt unnaturally nervous. What if Sora didn't feel the same way? She'd feel like such a fool...

She felt herself stumble along as she went with her cello into her seat. She hadn't stumbled since the first time she had picked it up...

She looked around for Sora. There he was, with his spikey hair and his blue eyes... she wanted to sit and stare at him forever... but that wouldn't work right now. She had to have at least a teensy bit of self control- after getting caught for daydreaming in both Math and English, then completely tripping over herself in Dance. Not only was the trip embarrassing, it was painful to her behind.

"Hi." She greeted her stand partner, thinking maybe something might take her mind off of Sora.

"Hey!" Her stand partner seemed to be extremely perky today. "I am so happy we don't have to have chair auditions until next semester! I was afraid that I would have to actually practice!"

Kairi raised an eyebrow. How could someone call themselves a musician, or even a member of the orchestra, and then right out loud say that they didn't want to practice?

As soon as the tardy bell rang, the class became silent. They wanted to know how well they did last night.

"You guys were wonderful. I'm glad that festival was a warning to you guys about being as a team..." As he droned on, Kairi concentrated on Sora. Or rather, the back of his head, since she couldn't really see any other part of him. She still kept half an ear on what Mr. Leonhart was saying, so she wouldn't be caught off guard again.

"And, so, let's start our new music now. Please pass up your old music to your section leader. And as you know, we don't have time to chair audition this time around- but only three weeks to work on the music. So either way, you guys need to practice."

Kairi took out her music, reluctant to part with it. Last night seemed to be a lifetime away... what if she ever forgot the melodies? What would happen then? She sadly passed it to her stand partner, who passed it to the stand in front of them.

When Sora was waiting for the music to be passed up, he was turned to face his section. He caught a glance at Kairi, who was looking back at him. She was happy for just that moment for their eyes to lock the way they did that morning.

As Sora was passed the music to pass back to his section, he turned around again to look at Kairi. It was like a game, to see how many times he could look at her.

"Okay, everyone, let's try to sight read this... let's start with White Christmas." He held up his hands to conduct.

Amazingly, Kairi did not get lost through the whole song. She did hit a few out of tune notes here and there, but she let the music ring from her heart. In turn, she could feel the music also ring from Sora's. And there was something about it that just made her know, for at least that short moment, that music would connect them together forever. 

For that hour, it was just the two of them. The rest of the music didn't seem to matter, it was just her and Sora, Sora and her, playing together, their notes blending together as one.

During a few minutes of the class, there had been a piece that everyone was having a hard time counting. Kairi, subdividing in her head like crazy, was one of the few people actually on beat in the end. She had let the music come out in its own pace, and it seemed to match Sora's.

Was this how it was explained? How that churning in her heart was explained? It seemed like a confident enough explanation...

But there was something more. Something more than the music radiating from their hearts. Kairi wanted to discover that herself. Maybe Selphie already knew, but she didn't want to know by asking. She wanted to know by finding out from her own experience.

-

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	16. Chapter 15: Early Christmas

A/N: Mwahahahahaha…

I need to think of something more creative to write in my beginning notes. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or White Christmas.

Chapter 15: Early Christmas

The powdery white puff on Kairi's lawn on was crushed one morning, when Selphie ran up to Kairi's doorstep, rather than waiting for her on the sidewalk the way she usually did.

"KAIRI! KAIRI! KAIRI!" She banged on the door after she rang the door bell multiple times. She heard a soft moan, and then heard a yell, "Coming..." The door then opened to reveal a very nicely dressed Kairi. "Hey, Selphie... I'll be out in a minute." She walked over to her closet to find her big winter coat to fit over her school uniform, and walked out to greet Yuffie and Selphie.

"It's freezing out here... Yuffie, how are you not shaking?"

"Eh... I'm used to the cold. Sort of." As soon as she spoke, her own legs started to shake under her skirt.

"I can't believe our school actually makes us wear skirts in the winter..." Kairi moaned. "

I'm gonna get sick! Sicker than sick!"

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic, Kairi!" Selphie bounced up to her. "At least we're actually going to have a White Christmas onstage." It was the tradition that Destiny High did every year- for ALL of the orchestra students to play White Christmas together, all either onstage or in the audience as strollers.

"The only snow that I'm favoring right now is the kind that's going to be on the stage tonight- the kind that's not COLD!" Kairi screamed the word as she ran up to Namine. "Let's hurry to school..."

"I'll race you," Yuffie said.

"But you know I'll lose!"

"Yeah, well... last one to school is a rotten egg!" Yuffie ran off, with Kairi trailing many strides behind her.

"Ah... wait for us!" Namine and Selphie screamed. They started to run, but then stopped a couple of paces later. "We'll let them have their competition." She turned to look at Namine. "Haven't you noticed that Kairi's been a little bit different lately?"

"Yeah. She's actually getting up with at least a little bit of time to get dressed." Namine giggled. "But we both know why..."

"Sora!" The two off them held onto each other to keep on falling onto the cold ground and giggled together.

The brunette himself came up behind the two girls. "What were you talking about me for? And where's Kairi? Isn't she usually with you two?"

"Nothing. And she ran off with Yuffie because of the cold."

"Oh, okay." He ran off in the same direction that the other two girls did.

"He's got it, too." Selphie giggled to Namine.

-

When Yuffie and Kairi had finally made it to school, they ran past their usual hangout, the courtyard, into the orchestra room, where it would be warm. "Finally!" Kairi breathed, as she opened the door into the orchestra room.

She panted as she walked, and sat in a random chair. Yuffie sat next to her, breathing normally- no short of breath at all. "So, Kairi, how does it feel now that you've dashed only about four hundred meters?"

Kairi smiled. "Oh, be quiet, Mrs. I'm-such-a-great-cross-country-runner."

"I see how that is. Say, why don't we practice? Shuriken and I are getting a little bit lazy."

"Who's Shuriken?" Kairi asked, confused.

"Him." Yuffie pointed to her viola.

"Your viola?" Kairi raised an eyebrow. "You named your viola?"

"I name my cello, too." A voice whispered in her ear.

"AHH! Sora, stop scaring me like that!" She fell out of the chair she was sitting in. "Help me up." She demanded, and then raised her hand up for either Yuffie or Sora to grab it.

When Sora did so, she felt her stomach tingle inside. She loved that feeling of being around him, or just simply looking at him. "So what's your cello's name?" she giggled.

"Goofy. And my bow's name is Donald."

Yuffie and Kairi both burst out laughing. "How original..."

"Hey, at least it's better than calling it 'cello,' KAIRI." He pretended to glare at her.

She pretended to glare back, but was only lost in his blue eyes. They were like sapphires, always sparkling... and when he played the cello was when they seemed to sparkle the most.

She wished that she could watch him play from the front instead of from the back more often, just to see those sparkles in his eyes.

Yuffie watched as the two of them looked at each other. "How weird..." she mumbled to herself."It's like they speak to each other without words..."

"Sora..." she whispered. She felt a little bit bolder than usual today, and touched his hand. "Play Goofy for me." She let out a small giggle.

Sora wasn't sure how to answer to that. It wasn't a fan girl request, but it was also fairly demanding- but just not the same tone of voice that his mother used when she asked him to play for whatever guests were over for the night. But, he also wanted to hear her play with her passion, also. "How about you play with me?"

She agreed, and they both unpacked their cellos and got out their music.

Once they started, it seemed to be time seemed to be endless- and the way Kairi wanted it to be. She never thought that the tone of her cello- she decided to name it Oathkeeper- would ever be able to match Sora's in perfect harmony.

When they stopped, Sora spoke. "It's too bad that we didn't have chair auditions this time... You play so beautifully now, Kairi..."

She stared at him in disbelief. A few months ago, she thought that it would be impossible for Sora to give out a compliment like that to her. Even now, the words felt a bit surreal.

"Thanks, Sora..."

The bell rang, and the two had to part from each other. It was almost of like a tragic ending, although they would be seeing each other just a mere five hours away.

-

Fifth hour came a bit too slowly. Kairi had always found herself daydreaming in class, especially Math. Proofs were just too complicated for her mind at the moment. And, well, the only number that she could count up to at the moment was 4, the number of beats in common time. And they weren't even dealing with numbers- they were doing Geometry!

"Kairi, what's the answer to number two on the homework assignment?"

"Eh?" She looked up at the teacher.

"You obviously don't know the answer to that, so, Selphie, do you have the answer?"

Selphie answered correctly, for once in her lifetime, and Kairi quickly floated back to her daydream.

-

"Kairi, I'm telling you, you've gotta wear at least some form of makeup this time!" Namine pleaded. "I'll do it for you, as long as you can keep your eyes open without blinking!" They were all gathered at Kairi's house this time, since her mother suddenly became very obsessive about her attendance at the concert.

"Okay, okay..." Kairi surrendered. Her lid muscles tried her keep her eyes pried open long enough for Namine to swipe a bit of mascara on them, but as soon as the brush touched her lashes, the lid was defenseless and it flew down.

A second or so later, her eye reopened, and Namine dabbed a little bit of water on her bottom lid, where the mascara had stained it. She continued to do this until she was satisfied with the way Kairi's eyelashes looked.

She brushed a little bit of eye shadow on her eye lids and a bit of blush on her cheeks. When she was happy with the powders, she took out a tube of lip gloss and was about to swipe it on her lips, but then handed the wand to Kairi to put it on herself.

Selphie and Yuffie were out in the other room, waiting for Kairi to be finished. The Christmas concert was always Selphie's favorite of the year- she was bouncing up and down and the concert had yet to start for at least another hour.

"Oh, Yuffie, I can't wait! I can't wait for the snow to fall onstage! I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!"

"Selphie, calm down. Namine's just said that she was done with Kairi's makeup, let's go look!" They didn't need to take one step further, because Kairi walked down the stairs in her concert uniform as if she were modeling for a beauty pageant.

"OH MY GOD NAMINE YOU ARE WONDERFUL! She looks so awesome!" Yuffie, for once, was squealing over something as girly as makeup.

"Sora's not gonna be able to tear his eyes away from you tonight!" Selphie grinned.

"Thanks, you guys... but I don't really feel too confident about tonight. I mean, we only had that music for three weeks..." Kairi's mouth twitched in agitation.

"Think of it this way. There's no way that we can do worse than we did at Festival," Yuffie reassured, and then the three of them let out a small laugh.

Although it had now turned into a joke amongst the orchestra students, the thought of the festival at the beginning of the year was enough to make Kairi gag. It wasn't because of the way they played, it was because of the jerk that Sora had been then, and was now a little bit more intimidated by his demeanor by the sudden memory. Was the way that he had been acting for the past month or so... for real? Or was it all an act?

"Kairi, you okay? You look kind of worried." She looked to see all of her best friends looking at her, no longer grinning the way they had been just a few minutes ago.

"I was just thinking... I'm okay now though." She put a smile on her face, because she really _was _happy. She didn't want them to think any other way.

"C'mon, Kairi... let's get into the car, your mom's calling for us."

This time around, Kairi's mother insisted that Kairi sit in the front seat next to her, so the instruments wouldn't get squished. She wanted to protest, but her mother was in such a good mood that she hadn't seen her in since taxes were paid, so she didn't want to ruin it.

"Buckle up, everyone." Kairi's mother said while she was backing out of the driveway.

When they reached school a few minutes later, her mother dropped them off in front of the auditorium. There were many people pouring in there- so much more than their last concert three weeks ago.

"Wow, be glad that we got you here early, Namine... if we came any later you might have had to fight for a seat in our tiny auditorium!" Yuffie said.

"Don't diss our auditorium!" Selphie argued, the way that she always did with Yuffie.

"Well, it _is_ small... it doesn't mean that I don't like it!" Yuffie raised her hands in defense.

"Yeah, whatever Yuffie!"

"Hey, I'll see you guys later, okay?" Namine gave a wave to Kairi, and the arguing duo.

"Sure, see ya then. Hope you like the concert." Kairi spoke for the three of them, since Yuffie and Selphie were still arguing like a married couple.

They walked down to the orchestra room, to get unpacked and warmed up. By then, Selphie and Yuffie had come to the compromise that yes, our auditorium did not fit as many people as Paopu High's did, but our seats were more comfortable and the room itself was more snug. How they ever resolved that was beyond the knowledge of anyone else.

Selphie pushed open the door. "HI, EVERYONE!" Tonight, the usual hyper girl was even more hyper than usual.

"Oh no, everyone clear out a pathway so Selphie doesn't fall on anything." Yuna teased. The two were friends now, although Selphie had kept first chair and Yuna had kept Tidus. (Guess you can't have everything in life!) They were still in their own cliques with their own friends at school, but at least in the orchestra room, they could keep the first violins together.

Selphie quickly unpacked, and tuned herself with Kairi's help. Even though Kairi was the newest member of the orchestra, her ears were a bit sharper than Selphie's, and Selphie didn't want to play even a slightly a flat or sharp A in front of the crowd.

"Okay, you're good." Kairi smiled at the hyper girl- she was wearing a thick yellow ribbon in her hair that night, and it flopped with her in whichever way the girl decided to run, skip, or jump.

"Freshman Orchestra... you're up." The while everyone else was hastily warming up, Mr.

Leonhart had taken the chance to lead them into the audience. Only the freshmen group was left.

"It is REALLY packed out there tonight, guys... so no pressure. None at all."

The basses went out first, and then the cellos followed. After, the violins and violas walked on stage in an orderly fashion, smiling as bright as they could until their cheeks hurt.

Their portion of the concert, at least in Kairi's option, was too short. She lost herself in her music, at least until Mr. Leonhart had cut them off, and led them into the spot where the concert orchestra was originally sitting. It was the most orderly fashion that Mr. Leonhart could come up with- for the freshmen to sit where the Concert once sat, for the Concert to sit where the Chamber was originally sitting, and for the Chamber to sit where the Symphony was. Although they would be a few chairs off, it worked fine, at least for the years that Destiny High had been open.

The freshman orchestra had sat patiently in the audience until the second to last song Symphony was about to play. They all filed out, and the cellos and basses were ordered to wait backstage, after coming on through the back door.

Kairi had heard the beautiful notes of Silent Night- the song that had influenced and pushed her into playing the cello. They were from the first chair, first violinist, who played them as a solo. After Mr. Leonhart signaled that the song was over, it was time to move. All of the cellos and basses from the orchestras of Destiny High gathered a little closer to the stage, and were to wait until all of the violins and violas had filed out into the audience- with the members of Strolling Strings coming out first. It seemed like a strolling performance, except for the fact that every single member of the Destiny High orchestra joined in the middle of the song- either in the aisle or onstage.

Together, all two hundred of the orchestra members played White Christmas as fake powdery snow fell upon them and the audience. Riku got a huge chunk of it that obviously wasn't mashed like the rest of it was in his hair, and he shook his head to get the powder out.

Needless to say, all of the cellists and bassists who had noticed this were trying to keep themselves from laughing.

Fortunately, though, most of them were keeping their minds on their music, especially Kairi.

She felt a bit lost when she heard the stifled giggle of her stand partner, and was hardly aware that the snow was falling- although she was aware that it was supposed to. She was completely drowned into her music.

When the concert was over, Kairi felt a piece of her heart gone. It was the night of her life, even though she wasn't first chair, she wasn't in Symphony, and didn't even see much of Sora. All she wanted was to stay on the stage and share her music for the world to hear.

After she walked back to the orchestra room with the other two hundred performers, she packed up Oathkeeper, and put him on the rack to go talk to Sora at least a little bit before the night was over. He was talking to Riku, as usual.

"I can't believe that huge glob of snow fell on my head! I swear, that's the most embarrassing thing that could have happened this concert!" Riku shook his head to get more of the snowflakes out of his silver hair. "Look at how many are still in there!"

Kairi was confused. "Wait, what?" Sora hadn't noticed that she was there listening until she spoke.

"A huge glob of snow fell on Riku's head. Man, it was hilarious." Sora started laughing.

So that's what her stand partner had been giggling about, Kairi concluded.

"So, Kairi, where were you during the concert? It was like you were physically here but mentally not... where's your mind today?" Sora asked.

"The same place where it was this morning." Kairi smirked.

"Nice, Kairi." Sora looked to see that there were only a few people left. "Well, I've gotta

go now, Kairi, nice job." He patted her shoulder in a lovingly way.

"Thanks, you did well, too." She loved every word of his compliments.

"Kairi! Come here!" Selphie screamed for her to come over.

"Yeah, Selphie?"

"Guess what I found out tonight? Well, technically, Namine found out, but I've got to tell you!"

"What?"

"You know that girl who's first chair in Symphony? The one with the Silent Night solo?"

"Yeah..." What was so significant about her?

"She's Roxas's sister! Who knew that musical blood actually flowed through his family?"

"Um, Selphie," Namine entered their conversation. "His whole family is musical."

It was a total no-duh moment for Selphie. She smacked herself on the forehead. "Come on, let's go now. What time is it, anyway?"

Namine, the only one of them wearing a watch, looked at it. She said, "9:15."

"Okay... I've gotta hunt for my mom first." Kairi said as she disappeared through the crowd. A few minutes later, she and her mom came back to meet Selphie, Yuffie, and Namine.

They piled into the car, all tired. Kairi's mother could not stop saying how proud she was of them, and how beautiful White Christmas was. After she dropped off her friends, Kairi's mother headed straight home, and they both went to bed content, yet tired- mentally and physically.

-

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	17. Chapter 16: Feelings

A/N: YAY for a new chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 16: Feelings

Kairi sighed as she trudged off to school with her buddies. There had just been so much excitement last night, and it passed so quickly. No wonder this was Selphie's favorite concert of the year; it was the most amazing, magical, and well thought out, although it was almost the same every time- at least it surprised a few people every year.

She wanted to remember that feeling that she felt onstage- no nervousness, completely relaxed, and she could just let the music fly from her cello. There was no word that could explain it, not one that she could come up with at the moment.

"Hey, Kairi?" It was unnaturally quiet today, almost as if Yuffie and Selphie had gotten into another argument, which was usually the case. Apparently, though, that wasn't the case, because they were walking next to each other as usual. Finally, Selphie had chosen to break the silence.

"Yeah?" Kairi's mind was still in a different world, until she heard Selphie's giggle. The girl must have been nervous to ask whatever she was going to, because her giggle had the little hiccup in it.

"When," she giggled, "are you going to tell Sora how you feel?" Her giggling stopped.

As immaturely as Selphie had stated her question, Kairi felt that she had really meant waht she said; not just some question as a joke. "Selphie, I really don't know. I don't even know if my feelings are real anymore... everytime I think about how awful he was to me, I can't look at him without thinking that it just might be a ploy."

Selphie nodded. "I guess I understand..." She couldn't think of anything else to say- she usually wasn't the comforting person when people got upset. "I mean, the only person that I can remember feeling anything for is Tidus..."

Kairi giggled. "Oh, I remember that one guy that you liked in first grade..."

Selphie took this chance to giggle also. "I didn't like him! He was the one who was obsessed with me!"

Kairi smiled. Typical Selphie... always denying the truth. But it was the past; something that no one can change.

They had reached school by then, although Yuffie and Namine had been walking much faster than the other two, and were screaming for them to walk faster. It was much, much colder today than it had been before, and a fresh layer of snow was in the school's courtyard. Although Kairi would have normally been attempting to run along Yuffie and pathetically failing, today, she was just too beat from the concert, too wrapped up in her emotions.

"Come on, let's go into the music building, so we can all at least get some sort of warmth." Yuffie led them up to the building, and even held the door open for her friends.

They didn't go inside the orchestra room because they knew that Namine would not be allowed in there. It was the way that it had always been- non orchestra members weren't to enter the orchestra room, and non band members weren't allowed to enter the band room- although according to Namine, Miss Gainsborough was much more leinent on the rule.

Kairi sat down against the wall, and Selphie did so accross the hall from her. The older students would probably be looking at them like they were crazy, but it would be okay. People always gave Selphie weird looks anyway.

Yuffie wiped her finger accross the floor. After one swipe, she looked at it, and made a face. "Eww... this is gross... why are we sitting on it?" She showed the immense amount of dust on her finger to her friends.

"Well, I'm lazy. And I don't feel like getting up anyway." Kairi whined.

"Oh, come on, Kairi... let's at least find a semi-clean place to sit... not on the dirty and disgusting tile." Yuffie pulled her friend up.

"Yuffie, the whole music building is tiled floor." Selphie stated.

Yuffie sighed. "Then let's go in the orchestra room and beg Mr. Leonhart to let Namine in there." Her hand was on the knob of the door.

Suddenly, a slew of juniors or seniors with band instruments entered the hallway. They were obviously part of the Symphony orchestra, or else they wouldn't dare enter- unless they were the type who wanted to feel Mr. Leonhart's wrath. They shrugged Yuffie aside, and entered themselves.

All Namine, Kairi, and Selphie could do was stare with their eyebrows raised. Their eyes grew wide as they watched Yuffie, with her hands on her hips, glaring holes into the brass section. She was screaming at the door, "I'll beat you down next year! I SWEAR I will... the unlucky one of you that gets to sit next to me will be completely BEATEN DOWN!" She vented at the door, and then mummbled, "Unless you're seniors... and unless I'm first chair..."

"Yuffie, calm down, all they did was go in..." Selphie put her hand on her taller friend's shoulder.

"And they shoved me aside!" She looked like her face was going to explode.

"And we will go in now." Kairi opened the door, and held it as Selphie halfway pushed Yuffie in, and Namine followed. Apparently, Mr. Leonhart wasn't here today- the first day he'd been absent all year. Selphie thought of that as a little odd, being gone for the first day after the Christmas concert, so she walked over to his office. Inside, Miss Heartilly was looking at the papers at the desk. She saw Selphie through the window and smiled.

"Hey, you guys, it's Miss Heartilly!" Selphie turned to tell everyone else in the room.

"Everyone else" meant the Symphony brass section, Sora and Riku, and her friends. Everyone stopped doing whatever else they were doing and turned to peek through the window.

"Oh my god, it's Miss Heartilly!" One of the brass players opened the door and walked right in her office, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. He seemed to be down on one knee, holding out something to her. It was almost like he was proposing to her. Miss Heartilly shook her head softly, and gave him a loose hug.

Everyone else, including the other brass players, were gawking through the window. No one said a word, and no instrument played a sound. It was like the room was on mute. It was only when the guy came out crying that the mute came off. All of his friends came over and hugged him, although when Selphie questioned them they insisted that it was a "manly hug."

It turned out that he hadn't proposed to her; he was just admitting his undying love for her, the one that he had contained inside him since the seventh grade, when he first saw her in the hall.

He let it all out, right in the orchestra room, in front of his friends, and six freshmen strangers that he didn't know. His friends were all trying to confort him, but all the rest of them could do was gawk. When one of his friends realized that they were staring, he came over, and said, "Did you not realize that he had his heart broken right there?" When no one moved, he continued, "Well, he did. Good luck figuring out your own love life if you can't even realize someone else's heart is broken." He walked away, and insisted that he and his friends leave the room.

Selphie's expression changed as she bounced around the room. "What a sensitive guy... so much more so than Tidus!"

Kairi had been thinking, in her own little world, almost the whole time. She wasn't a bit fazed by the outburst, but she was now afraid. She didn't want to confess to Sora anymore... what if he rejected her the way Miss Heartilly did? Not that Miss Heartilly was cruel about it- but it was still heartbreaking for the guy, all the same.

She didn't want a broken heart quite yet. So maybe she could put off the confession.

-

"Kairi..." Selphie tauntingly spoke as she looked at her.

"What, Selphie?" Kairi gave her a Look from while chewing her sandwich.

"Why don't you talk to Sora during fifth hour today?"

"Why do I need to?"

Namine and Yuffie looked up. This seemed like an interesting conversation, although they missed the more important part from the morning.

"Because he's-" Yuffie covered Selphie's mouth, then lightly kicked her shin.

"It's nothing, Kairi. We just thinking that you should tell him how you feel before..." she gulped, not knowing what to say.

Thankfully for her, Namine thought of a way to continue the onesided convesation. "Because we think the sooner you tell him, the better."

Kairi huffed. What was with this? "Look, you guys, I really don't think that the, um, feeling is strong enough for me to tell him. Besides, was I the only one who realized how the guy felt when Miss Heartilly rejected him today?"

"Kairi, Sora is so TOTALLY not going to reject you. I'm sure he likes you back." Yuffie grinned. Selphie, still muted by Yuffie's hand, nodded quickly.

Kairi was about to say that she personally thought that Selphie was thinking that way because she wanted them to get together, but she decided not to. Besides, she liked the idea of Sora liking her back... even though it would be just a high school romance, and nothing more.

From that thought, she had made herself a little bit upset about it just being a "high school romance," since she had slightly envisioned being with him forever... along with Oathkeeper, of course, but... she told herself to stop. To stop obsessing about Sora... to stop thinking that far. After all, she still had to get past the first hurdle- to see if the feelings were even mutual.

Selphie, no longer muted, was pulling on her arm now. Why was she so demanding about these things? Kairi soon found herself dragged off to the orchestra room, and soon plopped in front of Sora. She felt like she was being questioned at some psychiatric ward, with Selphie and Yuffie as the guards and Sora as the questioner.

"Hey, Kairi... what are you doing here?" Sora sounded very casual. "You haven't really been coming here since I've gotten you Oathkeeper." Yes, she had made it known to him that she, too, had a name for her instrument. 

"Well, I didn't exactly come here out of my own free will." She looked at Selphie and Yuffie, who were attempting to glare down at her with firm faces. She could tell that they were both trying to hold back giggles.

"Ahem?" Selphie looked at her, as if she was to say something. Kairi shurgged her shoulders, as if she didn't know what.

Kairi really didn't expect her confession to work out this way, so she gave her friends a plead, and mouthed, "I will." They obviously got the picture, so they left a nervous Kairi and a VERY confused Sora in the room.

How was she going to say it? She hadn't planned it at all; but then, were confesssions supposed to be planned? "Um..." was all that came out of her mouth.

"Yeah, Kairi?" Sora looked at her with soft eyes. She wanted to break away from his gaze, but there wasn't any hope of doing that, now that she had felt the feeling again... the same feeling she felt when she was playing her cello.

Now, she knew, would be the right time to say it. "I like you a lot, Sora..." She mummbled, not sure if it was the right thing to say, and almost intimidated by the way his gaze made her feel.

As she saw the expression his face start to change, she was scared. Was he going to break her heart the way Miss Heartilly did to the other guy? She didn't want that to happen; she was almost begging God to turn back time so she wouldn't have said what she did.

She felt slight relief when she saw his mouth curve upward into a grin. She tried to continue smiling, but it was hard when she was so nervous inside.

"You know something, Kairi?" He seemed to be smiling wider, and he now took her hand in his.

"Wh-what?" She was stuttering from her nervousness.

"I like you a lot, too."

She could feel her heart burst from excitement. He liked her back, and then they could have a happy ending together... along with their cellos and the music that had rested in their hearts. She was so excited that she stood up, and squeezed him in a tight hug. Her tight smile had now become a huge grin, and she let out a giggle.

"Hey, Kairi... I've gotta ask you something."

"What?" She was a little surprised- wait, MORE than a little surprised.

"Do you want to come with me somewhere next Friday?"

She didn't even take the time to think about her work schedule then, she was so happy. "I'd love to!"

And there it was- the feeling so sheer blistfulness; one that most people only feel a few times in a lifetime. There would be nothing to worry about; only them and the music. Together.

-

I'm sorry if this chapter was shorter than the others. ;;

But you can still review & make me happy, right?

(Because I really want to hit 100)

-makes her best pleading face- 


	18. Chapter 17: Goodbye

A/N: omg, we're so close to the end now… -cry-

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING.

Chapter 17: Goodbye

Kairi was completely bundled up that Friday, waiting for Sora to come pick her up. She wanted to look her best, but it was a bit hard to considering that it was going to be only about thirty degrees Fahrenheit that night. Every other minute, Selphie was calling her to ask how everything was going, and as annoyed as Kairi got, she was sort of glad that Selphie was checking up on her- she wasn't usually into the whole dating thing, anyway.

Being the klutz that she was, Kairi had taken about 20 minutes getting the right amount of mascara on. The rest of it was a little bit easier, but she couldn't help stressing about if she looked like a clown with all of the artificial junk on her face.

She looked in the mirror one more time, and then down at her clothes. She was wearing jeans, as usual, a long sleeved shirt, and a big coat that her mother insisted on her wearing because of the cold. She would have ignored her mother's plea, if it weren't for the many days that she attempted to race Yuffie to school because of the low temperature.

The doorbell rang. Kairi excitedly ran down the stairs to look through the peephole to see who it was. She was a little bit disappointed to see it was only her mother, although she opened the door for her anyway.

"Hey, Mom... don't you have a key?"

"What, so you don't want your poor always working mother inside her own house that she pays the bills for? How ungrateful of you!" Her mother teased. "Oh, by the way," she moved aside, to reveal Sora behind her. "Your date is here."

Kairi wanted to pout and argue that he wasn't her date, but she decided to lay off. It would look kind of weird in front of Sora, anyway. She waved goodbye to her mom, and closed the door behind her.

"Hey..." She said shyly, almost in a whisper. "Where are we going, anyway?"

Sora laughed, and then gently took her hand. "You'll see. What would a surprise be if I told you?"

Kairi slightly tightened her grip on Sora's hand, letting him know that it would be okay. "But I'd like to at least know a _little_ bit about where we're going..."

"No, it would ruin the element of surprise." He smirked playfully as they walked in the crunchy snow.

"Can't you give me at least one hint?" Kairi begged, and gave him the puppy dog look. Sora took this chance to gaze at the Christmas lights around him on the houses, and not look at Kairi's face. He knew that if he did, he would completely give it away.

"Look, Kairi... someone put a reindeer on their roof." He beckoned to a house far off in the distance.

Kairi squinted, her mind completely off the subject now. She moved her head to different angles and she still couldn't find it. "Where? Where? Where?"

Sora, still holding Kairi's hand, held it up, and pointed to the house that had the reindeer, which was getting much closer to now. "See it?" He smiled. At least this was getting her off of the original subject.

"Yeah, it's so beautiful... I love how everyone puts up their lights on the Island during Christmas... well, except for us. Mom never really has time and I don't have the physical capability." She giggled.

"I remember my dad would always put up the lights a day before the benefit concert that he always played at. I think it was his tradition for good luck... because that's how he met my mom. She was the head of the committee who organized it until I came along."

"Oh, Sora... don't you just cause trouble for everyone." Kairi teased. She smiled, and then looked at the building that they had stopped in front of. It looked... oddly familiar. She loved the way the lights were decorated, walked a little bit closer and let go of Sora's hand as if her body was taken over. Her hand fingered one of the lights, almost as if she was touching them to see if they were real.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" He asked, and put a hand on her shoulder.

She smiled, and pulled Sora into a hug. Now that she was sure that her feelings were mutual, her mind started wandering into the future. They could have a family together... just the two of them, and their cellos... her mind drifted off as she inhaled his scent.

"Um, Kairi? I'm enjoying this as much as you are, but people are staring. I think they want to go inside, and they can't." Sora winked.

She realized that they were blocking the entrance to wherever Sora had brought her. She blushed, hoping that in the darkness, Sora wouldn't notice. "Let's... go in, then. What's inside, anyway, Sora?"

Sora smiled, and took her hand once again. "I told you, you'll see. Close your eyes." He put his hands over her eyes, just to make sure she wasn't peaking. He then carefully led her inside, trying not to trip over her feet.

Kairi heard Christmas music when the door closed behind them. It was soft... and she wasn't particularly sure about where she was, although she could feel the bright lights of the room. "Sora? Can I open my eyes now?"

"Yeah." He moved his hands, and when Kairi opened her eyes, she took a look around before she was blinded by the beauty. The inside was more extravagant than the outside. The lights were placed in extremely well thought out patterns, and all Kairi could do was stare. She slowly spun around, taking a good look at everything around her. When she was done, she turned to look at Sora, who was watching her and smiling.

"Like it?"

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Kairi tried to keep herself from jumping up and down for joy.

"That's not all..." He took her hand, and opened the door in front of them to an auditorium. "We're staying for the concert."

Kairi squeezed Sora in a tight hug. "I'm so happy..."

He ran his fingers through her hair, and then sadly smiled. "Me too... let's go find a place to sit." The auditorium was quickly filling up, and Sora led her to the middle area and motioned for her to sit.

They both sat down quietly, and talked for a while until it was time for the concert to start. She gripped Sora's hand, not wanting to ever let it go. She had gotten attached very quickly, but she wasn't about to let it end so fast. The lights around them dimmed, and the music started.

From the beginning of the concert, the music seemed familiar to Kairi- like she had heard it before. When she poked Sora and asked him about it, he just said that they were regular Christmas tunes, nothing too special. But there was still something that intrigued her about how familiar they sounded, and the order they were in. As excited as she was before, she soon became a bit bored. She felt herself nodding off, fighting to stay awake, and letting her head rest on Sora's shoulder.

"Kairi, the best part is going to start soon..."

She shot up, and now sat up straight. A man in fancy a suit walked onstage, up to the mic. "Now, here's our final song, Silent Night."

Kairi could feel her eyes widen as a cellist walked up onstage. Now, everything hit her like a ton of bricks- this was the same concert that her parents took her to when she was little- the concert where she fell in love with the cello. She watched every movement of the cellist onstage, edging farther off her seat with each note. By the end of the song, she had almost fallen off her chair and barely noticed it.

"Sora..." She felt his fingers wrap around hers. "Thank you..." she giggled. The lights had come back on, signaling that the concert was over. She didn't want to get up from her seat- it had been the night of her life. Never would she imagine that Sora would bring her here.

Sora was grinning from ear to ear; he knew that Kairi would love it, but he hadn't realized that she would love it _this_ much. He felt completely happy inside, happier than he had ever felt before. "You're welcome, Kairi... I'm so glad that you liked it..." When she looked at him, he could feel himself falling into the state of peacefulness that he always did when he was around her.

Kairi could also feel herself falling, but she stood up, and helped Sora up, bringing him out of his state. "Come on... let's go look at the lights outside again..." she squealed out of happiness.

"Okay." He felt his heart lift with the rest of his body when he got up and they walked outside into the cold air. He felt her shiver and snuggle against him when they sat down on the bench outside.

He continued to stare at her features while she stared at the lights. He loved this side of her; the side that would always be a kid. He let out a little chuckle when she finally turned to look at him.

"What's so funny?" She poked him.

"Nothing, it's just that you're so... kiddy and cute."

"Are you calling me immature?" She playfully glared at him.

"No... because your music shows that you most definitely are not..."

During their short conversation, he could feel himself inching towards her, a little bit closer with every word. He wasn't sure when would be the right time... but now seemed perfect. He captured her lips in hers in a short and sweet kiss, letting go almost as fast as he had taken them.

Kairi was amazed. She hadn't expected it to happen so fast- not that she wasn't glad about it. It was just... surprising. What was she supposed to say?

Sora felt nothing but sheer bliss inside... until after a few minutes rolled by; he realized that there was something that he had to tell her. His expression changed, but Kairi didn't notice, since her mind was back on the lights. She wanted to stay here forever, next to Sora, and feeling the music from Silent Night radiating in her heart.

"Kairi." His voice was different now; what had happened? Did she do something? She wondered; then turned to look at him, and his expression was completely different from the last time she did. "I... we need to talk." He could feel his own voice shaking.

What had happened? Just a few minutes ago, they had shared their affection more than before... was it going to be over so soon? She could feel her own smile turning upside down, and her fingers fumbling. "Wh-what's wrong?" She shakily asked.

Sora was searching for the words to say. He knew that he had to... or else someone else would have to do it for him, and he didn't want that. "Do you remember when I told Selphie that I was going to stay here one more year before I went to Julliard?" He was now visibly shaking.

"Y-yeah?" Kairi now knew what he was going to say, she was just praying that he wouldn't.

"I... I have to go there to finish my school year, or else they're going to give my scholarship to someone else. I'm... I'm leaving tomorrow." He put her hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry..." he whispered.

Kairi could feel tearing building up in her eyelids. It's all a nightmare, she told herself... it's not real; it can't be happening... he can't be leaving so soon! "Sora..." she cried. "Don't leave..."

Sora pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry; Kairi... but I can't do anything about it. Julliard was my dream..." He could feel himself arguing inside. What had happened to her coming before his cello? Did he just suddenly stop caring around her?

Kairi's response now was to sob. Sora hugged her tighter. "I..." he stopped speaking.

"What?" Kairi's voice was now harsh. "What can you say now that you're leaving, and won't do anything about it?" She fought her way out of his grip, and dashed away from him. "I'm going home alone."

"No, you're not." Sora caught up to her quickly, and pulled her into another embrace. "Please, Kairi... just pretend that everything will be okay for the rest of tonight... please... I didn't mean to hurt you so much..."

Kairi couldn't help but listen to him. She let the pieces of her heart rest inside of her, as they chatted while they walked to Kairi's home. Her heart was breaking into more pieces with every joke that they laughed together at, with every sentence spoken.

When they had finally reached her home, Sora pulled a large envelope out of his coat. He held it out for her. "This is for you... don't open it until you get inside." When she didn't reply, he added, "Kairi, I'm always with you. I'll come back to you, I promise!" He watched her walk in, and then continued to his home.

Kairi threw the envelope on her desk in her room. What could possibly make up for what he had done? She let herself cry and cry, until all of her tears were gone. She walked into the bathroom, and realized that she had a vertical line of black running down her face. She angrily washed it off.

Afterwards, she glared at the envelope, wondering what was inside. He had obviously planned to tell her the bad news this evening, but hadn't expected her reaction. She carefully opened the envelope, her anger seizing when she saw what was inside.

There were two pages of music taped together, and obviously worn with the edges ruffled. The title said, "Silent Night."

-

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	19. Chapter 18: Misery

A/N: Wow, we're at chapter 18 already! My God, I love this fic so much... it's my baby.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Silent Night.

Chapter 18: Misery

Kairi woke up the next day with a sunken heart. She had wanted the night before to be fake- not that she didn't enjoy the beginning of it, but the ending was enough to make her want to sink into the floor, and never get up or do anything else. She'd live in solitude... as a puddle, melted to the ground.

But it wasn't possible for anyone just to let her do that. She glanced back at the music, and realized that that was all she had left of him, even though he said that he'd come back to her. It had just happened last night, and Kairi had already started to lose faith. Maybe there'd be some other girl that was a better musician than she was... maybe there was another girl that he could relate to more... or maybe just another girl who was, to put it simply, better looking.

She glanced over at the piece of music, and saw a piece of paper fall as she picked it up off her desk. She leaned over to pick up the paper. It was a note- from Sora, who else? She looked at the scratchy handwriting, and felt her heart die when she realized that he wasn't here with her anymore.

The note read, "Kairi, I hope you'll be happy with this as your solo your senior year. I know it's a little early to be planning, but Mr. Leonhart wanted me to do it. I thought that it would suit you better. Good luck, Sora."

She moaned, and slammed the letter down on the desk. She didn't want any more memories lingering around her. If he wasn't here any longer, she didn't see the point of obsessing so much anymore. It felt utterly pointless and stupid, for lack of a better word. Why couldn't she just forget about him altogether? It would be SO much easier on her already out of control emotions!

She didn't dare let her concience say that she loved him, because she wasn't even sure how she felt about him. It was too agrivating for her. And she had work today- the perfect cheering up that she needed. Not.

She got up out of bed, so her mother wouldn't have to march into her room. There was no one that she would speak to at the moment. She grumpily threw on some clothes, and stifly walked past her cello into the bathroom. Nothing would cheer her up today; except maybe... well, she knew that wouldn't happen.

She brushed her teeth like her was no tommorow, and yanked a brush through her hair. She stormed downstairs and into the kitchen, hoping her mother would be there, making breakfast. Although she didn't feel up to socializing, she felt even less up to making her own breakfast.

She wasn't. There was a note left on the counter. "Sorry, Kairi, I had an early shift of work today... there's cereal if you want some. -Mom"

Was the whole world just joyously running away from her? She threw away the note, and decided to take her anger out on her cereal and milk.

-

She suffered the rest of the weekend, and by the time Monday rolled around, she realized that she had barely practiced since Sora had left. Actually, she had barely touched Oathkeeper at all. The color of the cello was still enough to make her eyes shine with pride, even after having it for about three weeks.

She moaned as she got out of bed, not wanting to go to school or socialize or go back to life the way it was before. The weekend had dragged by, and she was actually quite happy with no calls from Yuffie, Selphie, or Namine. Apparently they had been preoccupied with something.

She slowly did her morning routine, not realizing the time passing by. Soon, the doorbell rang, and Kairi painfully back down to earth. She slowly walked over, not bothering to check who it was, and opened the door. Selphie was standing there, just as she had predicted. Unfortunately for Kairi, she was still not ready.

"Kairi, let's go!" There was a hint of saddness in the girl's normal cheerful voice. Or maybe it was just Kairi's thinking, because after she was dragged out of her house, Selphie went on chattering with them as she normally did, the same tone of voice that she had always talked in.

Kairi intentionally excluded herself from the conversation. She wasn't up to talk to anyone right now, nor was she feeling up to laughing and having fun. She just wanted to drown in her misery a little bit more.

Namine was the first to notice. She tried to talk to her, because she was pretty sure that it must have been something about Sora. "What's wrong, Kairi? You haven't talked to any of us since Friday..."

Kairi suddenly burst out crying a flood of tears. "He's gone..." she sobbed. "He's really gone now..."

Namine put an arm around her friend, and they walked over to a park bench. "Tell us what happened..."

Kairi continued to speak through muffled sobs. She told them everything that had happened, and all of her friends tried to comfort her.

"Hey, Kairi, it's okay. He'll be back to visit, I'm sure he will."

Kairi tried to argue, but her hiccups refused to allow herself to.

After about ten minutes of crying and comforting, the group headed towards school once again. To Kairi, it felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. There was no where else she wanted to be right now than with her best friends.

-

Winter break came and gone, and now the Northern Islands festival was a mere few months away. Kairi, now that Sora was gone, felt like a complete empty shell inside, especially when she was playing cello. Whenever she tuned, she remembered how he would tease her about her obsessiveness. Whenever she hit a wrong note, she thought of the way that he would look at her, and then smile like they shared a big secret. And whenever she was offbeat from the rest of the orchestra, she remembered how everyone would turn to stare, and then make fun of her about how she was so into her music, except for Sora.

She practiced constantly at home, with nothing else to do. Music was the only way that she could connect with him again, and that was only in her heart, with her no longer sure of whether he could feel it, too. Adding to that, her heart was extremely confused. And it wandered aimlessly as she player her music. Maybe if it wandered enough, it would find his- as far away and now, foreign to her.

Sometimes, her fingers would feel weak from drumming them on the fingerboard. That didn't stop her, it was just something else ready to bring her down... and she didn't want that.

She and the orchestra went up to Palm City in the northern part of the island for the festival. She felt bad for leaving Namine at home for the day, while she, Selphie, and Yuffie would be with what they loved.

She had made it to fifth chair, while Tidus had fallen to sixth. She was almost sure that he hated being her stand partner just as much as he hated that he had fallen four chairs since the beginning of the year, and just as much as he hated that she, for the first time, at beaten him. The first day they had gotten their new chairs, he muttered something under his breath about favoritism. Maybe he was grouchier now that Yuna had broken up with him. According to Selphie, who heard it directly from Yuna, she thought that he was too grouchy all of the time and needed to lighten up.

Which just caused Selphie to fall for him again. She had been chasing after him ever since, and he was back to his old attitude- the thought that everything and everyone was inferior to him. And Yuna hadn't exactly been the same, either. Yuffie still seemed to have a liking for Mr. Leonhart, except she had been more quiet about it since her outburst a while ago. Namine and Roxas had seemed to be drifting apart, but their relationship was still fairly solid, compared to those of some of her other peers.

Everything was changing around her... and she couldn't keep up with it. But when she was with Oathkeeper and the music, everything was okay. Nothing outside their enclosed bubble would matter. She would occasionally not realize that her mother was standing right in front of her doorframe, upset that she had not come down to dinner.

She wasn't upset with the changes as much as she was completely upset that everyone seemed to be young and in love- except for her. She was jealous of the red faces when everyone was admitting their feelings, and was even quite jealous of Tidus and Selphie's love-hate relationship. She tuned herself out whenever her friends were talking about their feelings and relationships, pretending not to care when she obviously cared more than anyone else.

She did nothing, and also said nothing. She didn't want to burden people with the problems that she had once again, the way she did about three months ago.

The festival was amazing. She realized how fortunate she was to be in one of the best orchestras in the Islands, and how lucky she was to have a conductor that actually gave the orchestra a full measure before the starting beat.

The day would have only beeen more amazing if the one person that she completely wanted to share it with was next to her, or rather, in front of her, for her to listen to how the music radiated from his heart the way it did from hers.

Unfortunately for her, she didn't get her wish. Sora had still not come back from Julliard even for a short visit. She'd spoken to Riku, Mr. Leonhart's aide for that semester about him, and apparently he hadn't even spoken to his best friend. She would occasionally regain faith that he may come back just to see her again, but now that faith was chipping away, day by day.

When they walked onstage to perform, Kairi held a smile on her face, although it was hurting inside for Sora to be so gone. She performed her best, but somehow, without Sora, it sounded empty. And what was worse was that it felt emptier than ever before.

-

Three more painful years passed. They weren't phsyically painful, psychologically painful, or academically painful. It was just emotionally painful for Kairi. After one year of no glimpse of Sora, she had completely lost faith. Although she still wished for him to come back, that was all it was- a mere wish. And most wishes don't get granted.

She continued to carry on her life the way it did after he left- watching everyone else fall in love, playing her heart out, and ignoring how fast time was passing. All she wanted was to see him again, even if it was just an illusion.

She hid all of this from everyone. She learned her freshman year that if she just carried on the way she always did, no one would notice, except for an occasional comment from Namine. She had always felt like an attention whore when her friends would gather around her in pity, especially Namine.

She really didn't want to go to college, although she applied for NYU and a few other schools around New York. She didn't want to leave, because she still wanted to wait for Sora, even though she knew that she couldn't wait forever.

The famous Christmas concert was coming around soon, and she was sitting smack in first chair of the Symphony orchestra. Chairs stopped being her concern long ago, when she realized that as long as her music stood out from the crowd, it didn't matter where she was sitting. She could honestly tell herself that she wouldn't care even if she had to sit backstage.

One day, Mr. Leonhart suddenly pulled her aside. "Kairi, do you have your solo music?"

She raised an eyebrow, completely surprised and confused. "What solo music?"

Mr. Leonhart sighed. "I was hoping that you had the song down already, although it won't be much of a challenge for you. It was that solo that Sora had promised he'd give you about, oh, three years ago?"

Because of Kairi's blank stare at him, he continued to ramble. The words flew around her ears though, considering that she wasn't absorbing any of them. Just hearing his name again was enough to freeze her insides and clog her ears. She had realized that it was Silent Night, the song that she had long admired, and the sheet of music that was carefully put in the bottom of her bottom desk drawer. She had long forgotten after the Northern Islands festival in her freshman year.

"Kairi? You there?"

"...Yeah. I have it. I promise I'll work on it this weekend- don't worry, I'll have it perfect by the concert."

Mr. Leonhart smiled. "That's the Kairi we know and love."

Kairi made a mental note to herself to find the piece again.

-

When she had gotten home, Kairi immediately headed up to her room, even before locking the front door. She flipped open the bottom drawer, and immediately started digging towards the bottom. Unfortunately, there were many, many papers in the drawer, and she was having a hard time grabbing big handfuls out at a time, although she could say that her handspan had gotten a bit larger since she started the cello.

When she reached the bottom of the drawer before finding the music, she had a minor spaz attack. What if she had lost it, or what if her mother had mistaken it for trash because it looked so worn? Right after that thought had passed, her fingers felt the worn paper, pinched it, and dragged it out.

She looked over the music, and a slight smile crawled to her face. The smile had more meaning to it than any of the empty ones she held onstage put together for the past three years.

The concert was going to be her night.

-

Review! We're ALMOST at 100... help me make it, you guys!


	20. Chapter 19: Homecoming

A/N: You guys guessed what would happen in this chapter… did I make it THAT obvious? XD My god, I feel stupid now. XDD

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Silent Night.

Chapter 19: Homecoming

"Did you hear that? Did you? That one famous cello player that used to go here is coming back..." Kairi could hear the flutes loudly gossiping while they were supposed to be warming up with the 20 minutes that Mr. Leonhart allowed them. She rolled her eyes. Sora might have gone to Julliard, but he wasn't famous- at least not yet.

Why she was feeling so sore, she didn't know. She was in a cheerful mood tonight, and didn't want anyone to bring that mood down- although the gossiping of Sora did make her upset. They acted as if he was some celebrity from their school that they had known personally- one of her peeves. It wasn't that she didn't like the idea of Sora being famous; it was just that she didn't like him to be thrown around like that. And those flutes were the same ones who didn't even know Sora existed when he was a freshman.

Kairi took out her solo from the music folder, and placed it on the stand. Her stand partner was going to be late tonight, so she might as well take advantage of hogging the stand with her solo.

She was playing the music perfectly tonight, even though she only had about a week to practice it. She could feel the stares of the other orchestra members when she moved so widely, but she didn't care. She was in her own little world, and she was happy. She had been happy since she realized that she still had the Silent Night solo that was handed to her three years ago, but this was better than that happy. This was sheer bliss.

"Kairi!" Selphie walked by and sat in her stand partner's chair. "Did you hear the rumors?"

She rolled her eyes. The flautists had ONLY been talking so loud that the person on the very OUTSIDE of the orchestra could hear them over the anxiously loud practicing. "Yes."

"Do you really think that Sora's going to be here tonight?"

This came as a shock to Kairi. She heard that he was coming 'back,' but coming 'back' could be several different things. She wasn't aware that they meant that he was coming back to watch them!

Her silence surprised Selphie. "You didn't hear, did you? Mr. Leonhart just told me and Yuffie. I guess word got around and a little bit mixed up."

Suddenly, Kairi became self-conscious. What did she look like? She didn't put on any make-up tonight, and hadn't since Sora had left. After all, there was no one to impress now... she looked around the room for a mirror, and then at Selphie. "How do I look?"

Selphie giggled. "You want me to be completely honest?" Kairi nodded. "You're part's crooked, you're hair is a little frizzy, and you look really sleepy."

"Shoot..." Kairi hastily ran her fingers through her hair.

"Good thing I came prepared. Actually, it was Namine's idea, since you were grouchy and didn't want to participate in the mini-makeover that she gives us before all of the concerts." She took out a small makeup bag, and looked at her cell phone. "You have 5 minutes before Mr. Leonhart leads us out to the audience." She handed the bag to Kairi. "Hurry!"

"Kay, I will." She ran off into the only bathrooms in the music building, and hurriedly put on a little bit of everything in the bag. She wasn't as klutzy with makeup as she was three years ago, so she didn't need help from any of the other girls doing last-minute makeup.

She ran out of the bathrooms, and toward the orchestra room, only to run smack into someone. "I'm so sorry!" She looked up at the male that she had run into, and gasped. "Sora," she breathed. Although he didn't look like he changed much, his whole aura around him had seemed to have matured.

"Yes, it's me. And it looks like you're going to be late to your own concert if you don't hurry back to the orchestra room." He gave her a little push.

"Okay," she mumbled. Sora was still Sora, even after three years at the best music school in the United States. And was it just her, or did he also seem to... grow up? She giggled, and ran back into the orchestra room, just in time.

-

Selphie, who was sitting on Kairi's chair, "guarding" her cello, bounced up and down. Where on earth was Kairi? She had taken up four-and-a-half of the five minutes that she had to get back here before Mr. Leonhart would find out that she left the room!

None the orchestra members were supposed to leave, but as Mr. Leonhart locked himself up in his office to try to relief stress, everyone just ran out and came back as soon as possible, knowing too well what time Mr. Leonhart would be out, also knowing the reaction that he would have if found half of them missing.

If Kairi hadn't come back in the exact moment that she did, both Selphie and Kairi could have been kicked out of the orchestra for the concert. They both ran back to their seats as soon as Mr. Leonhart's door cracked open and he walked out.

Their teacher walked out, commanding silence as he did. There was another change. Their orchestra never spoke as much as they did when they were Freshmen- although this year's freshmen were louder than ever. They were all crowded in one corner, all "ten thousand of them," as Selphie would say.

"Okay, guys. Symphony out first." With that command, the cellos and basses all stood up, and as Selphie held the door for them, they wobbled to backstage with their instruments and set them down in their own little spot that was mentally assigned to each of them.

Kairi hurried out to the audience, and sat behind the violins and violas. She looked around the crowded audience- this was their most popular concert of the year, Mr. Leonhart told them. There were people sitting in the aisle, standing where the chairs ended, and others dragging out chairs from who-knows-where and sitting where they felt comfortable watching- including the walkway in between the sections of the audience.

She giggled at the thought of strolling strings tripping over a chair as they walked out from the hallway, and then continued to look around for a certain someone. She strained her neck looking through the many people, but it would be worth it.

She saw him in the middle section of the auditorium, in the front row. He was looking around, too... maybe for her? Their eyes met, and she smiled, feeling the tears that were making her eyes glossy. Sora was the one who had gotten her where she was today, and she couldn't be more thankful.

Instead of paying attention to the other orchestra performances, all of the memories with Sora flowed through her mind- first the teasing, then the lessons, then the date that just completely ended it all. She wanted him back. She missed him more than ever, and she missed everything about him- his unnaturally spiky hair, his big blue eyes, and his cheerful smile that always brought her day up.

Now, everything in her life seemed to feel worthwhile once again, especially since she would be playing Silent Night for him- no one else.

She was in her own world for the biggest portion of the concert. Only when the violas started to get up, she realized how much time had passed. "Shoot..." she muttered, and then forced herself up with the rest of the group. She had barely even noticed Strollings' performance and she knew that Selphie was going to make her pay later.

She stiffly walked up to get her cello, but relaxed and started to practice once she had gotten into her seat. Her stand partner had miraculously made it to the concert while some other orchestra was playing, so being the nice person that she was, she let her choose the piece they were going to warm up on while the stage lights were dimmed and the lights in the auditorium were brightened.

Kairi felt herself relaxing as she warmed up with the piece that her stand partner chose. Everything was going to be perfect tonight, or rather, as close to perfect as possible. As Selphie entered the stage, the lights in the audience were dimmed and the stage lights became blinding.

They all tuned to Selphie's A, and she sat down, waiting for Mr. Leonhart to come onstage. He walked on, but not to his conductor's podium- it was to the microphone stand.

"We have something special for you all tonight. There's been a cello player- wait, two, but one of them left for Julliard-" Some people let out a laugh- everyone in the orchestra community knew who Sora was. "-that is one of the most amazing, most improved that I have ever seen in my life. And you all know how long that's been." More people laughed. "Well, we have a solo tonight. Give it up for your principal cellist."

Kairi felt herself blush from Mr. Leonhart's comments. She wasn't that good- was she? As the applause for her died down, she set her bow on her string, and started her vibrato.

She let her cello and her heart sing out- for Sora, because she knew that he was watching, and she wanted to let him feel her misery that she had felt for the past three years missing him.

And as each note went on, she could feel her own emotions surrendering to the music, too. A warm tear rolled down her cheek, yet she continued to smile.

After the last note, she let her bow hang off the string as she continued to use vibrato. The note echoed in the air and she could actually hear a few sniffles. Once the audience started to clap, she stood up and took a small bow- well, as much of a bow that she could do while holding her cello.

As she bowed, she took a glance at Sora. He had a completely sentimental look on his face, yet was clapping enthusiastically.

The rest of the Symphony's performance swept by like a dream. She was playing, alright, but her mind was still back where her solo was... in the past.

After the concert, Kairi, Selphie, and Yuffie stayed until almost everyone else was out. They usually helped Mr. Leonhart get the room back in order after 200 people were crammed into it at once. Today, however, more people stayed behind, hoping for Sora to waltz right in.

He did, but it was after most people lost their patience and just left. It was typical Sora- he didn't want to be stalked by the orchestra members in the school that he didn't know. Kairi didn't notice him come in- she was busy putting stacking the chairs with her back to the doorway.

He went to go talk to Mr. Leonhart, and gave him a stiff hug. After the two talked for a while, Kairi finally noticed that there was someone in the room other than Yuffie, Selphie, and herself.

"H-hi, Sora." Again with the stuttering? Wasn't that so freshman year?

"Hey!" He walked over to her and grinned. "You were wonderful tonight."

She smiled. "Thanks..." She looked down. "So why are you here?"

"I'm on break, so I decided to come see you guys."

Kairi could take it anymore- the fact that she and Sora were talking as if nothing happened, although they both knew very well that they hadn't spoken nor seen each other for two years. She completely exploded onto him. "Sora, I've missed you!" She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him like there was no tomorrow. "Why didn't you come before? I've been in misery for three years!" Tears came to her eyes.

He stroked her hair. "I've missed you, too... but I've had things to work on. I really would have come before..."

Kairi was fully sobbing now. "Sora... stay here. Stay here with me. I'm going to die without you."

He lifted her chin up to him. "No, you won't... be strong, Kairi."

"I don't know if I can anymore..."

"Shh. Let's take a walk." He took her hand, and led her out of the orchestra room, waving goodbye to Yuffie, Selphie, and Mr. Leonhart.

They were out in the school's courtyard, looking at the stars. Kairi had stopped shedding tears now, and was clutching Sora's hand. There were no words spoken, but the company that they had with each other was worth more than any words that could have been spoken.

"So..." Sora took a chance to talk. "Where are you going next semester?"

Kairi shrugged. "I don't know... I hope that NYU will accept me... but that's the best I can do."

Sora smiled. "That would be great... we'd be close to each other."

Kairi wanted to say how much she had been missing him, and how nothing was the same after he left. But those words just wouldn't come out.

"Look, Kai... I'm really sorry that I had to leave so suddenly, but we're together now... and that's all that matters, isn't it?" He pulled her into a hug.

With those words, everything felt right again. All of her anger melted away, and she could feel the passion that came three years ago coming back.

"I'm going to walk you home." Sora took his hand in hers, and they walked down the sidewalks with the stars twinkling above them.

-

Next chapter is the ending. I hope it won't be too disappointing for you guys, because… well… yeah. Thank you guys SO much for 100+ reviews, you're wonderful!

I don't know if I'm going to write a sequel for this, because I have an idea of what I'm going to write, but I don't like it very much. I might just do a semi-prequel that intersects with this fic, about Sora, because this one was mainly about Kairi. I kind of like that idea more than the sequel, but just by a little bit.

So, um, you should review! C:


	21. Chapter 20: Love?

A/N: Well, we've finally reached the end... T.T I'm very sad, very very very sad, because this was so much fun for me to write, and you guys have been so supportive & wonderful- more than anything I could ever ask for. 

Disclaimer: I don't own ANYTHING.

Chapter 20: Love?

Kairi giggled as she held onto Sora's arm. It was just like old times, and any thought of Sora leaving anytime soon was far from her mind. All she could think of was to be next to him forever.

They had reached her home, after a seemingly short walk. Sora walked her up to the door, and she smiled sadly. "I don't want this night to end... but you probably want to get back to your mom, don't you?" Although Sora had gone off to Julliard, his mother had stayed behind for unknown reasons to Kairi. Sometimes, when she saw her, she'd give a little wave, knowing that there was someone else who's heart was also breaking for the same person.

"It'll be okay. I've spent all day with her already." Sora smiled.

With that smile, she took his hand back in hers, and they walked down the lawn in front of her home. She tripped over the steep hill of grass and her long concert dress, but Sora caught her directly in his arms.

She looked into his eyes and giggled. They shone even in the pitch black darkness of the night. He set her back into a standing position, but with her leaning on him. "Sorry," she giggled. Her face turned serious again as she looked at her mailbox. "My acceptance or rejection letter was supposed to come today..."

"C'mon, let's see." Sora went over to their mailbox, and pulled out one letter. Apparently Kairi and her mother usually didn't get much mail. The envelope was addressed to Kairi from NYU.

Kairi was visibly shaking as Sora put the letter in her hand. "Let's sit down... I don't want to see you fall again."

She cracked a slight smile as Sora wrapped his arm around her waist, half pulling her down onto the grass. "I really don't want to open this..." she groaned, starting a staring contest with the envelope.

"It's okay... I'll be here for you no matter what." Sora tried to smile, but it was hard when Kairi was so upset.

She fumbled with the letter, but couldn't seem to be able to peel open the envelope due to her body shaking so violently. Sora, getting impatient, took her hands in his and held her shaking hands still. Once he felt her relax, he gently moved her fingers so it was able to open the envelope.

"See, that wasn't so hard."

"I'm still scared, though... Sora, you take it out and read it first!"

Sora, who was frowning, decided to obey her command. He slipped out the letter, then unfolded it, and started to mutter the words to himself.

Kairi watched the expression on Sora's face change as he read it. He started out with a sort of worried look, but then his mouth creeped its way into a big grin. "Wow, Kairi, they're offering you a full scholarship. What have you been doing all these years I've been gone?"

"Well, I didn't think that I did that great on Regents...(1)"

"Oh, stop being modest, Kairi. You know that you did wonderful." He took her hands in his and pulled her up off the grass. He then twirled her around in happiness.

Kairi's smile was now just as wide as Sora's, if not wider. They both colapsed on her lawn in dizzyness from the twirling, but were both as content as could be. Kairi pulled Sora into a tight hug. "I'm so happy."

Sora stroked her hair. "Me too, Kairi... me too... now think about how much we can see each other!"

Kairi felt her heart break as she heard his words. After Sora went back to Julliard, they'd still be separated for another semester, and Kairi didn't want to be away from him again. "Sora..." she moaned, and looked down in disappointment.

Sora put his hand to her lips. "Shh... it's okay, Kairi... don't think about that. Just take in all of the happiness now."

Kairi smiled. He was right, and she was going to do exactly what he was saying. Because now, as long as she was right next to him, she knew that nothing could go wrong, even if the world ended.

Was this was she had been waiting for all along? All of those years of misery... were they finally paying off, for being next to him for an hour? She let out a short sigh, and sat up, wondering if all of her pain was worth it.

Sora sat up also. "What's wrong, Kairi?"

"It's just that..." she paused and looked at her dress. "My concert clothes are getting dirty."

"No, I know that it's not that, Kairi. You weren't ever one to worry about things like that anyway."

Kairi looked down. Sora sighed and scooted a little bit closer to her to set an arm around her. "It's about me leaving again, isn't it?"

How could he always read her mind like that? "Yeah..." she frowned deeply.

"Look, Kairi, you just need to hold out for another semester... it won't be as long as it seems. I promise."

"But-"

"And even when we're apart... Kairi, you know that I'm always with you, even if you aren't with your cello. Just know..." He squeezed her hand. "...that and sound with beauty is from me to you. Because there's nothing more that I want than to be with you, too..."

She felt a tear roll down her cheek. Why did he have to do so much for her? She felt like she could do nothing for him... or at least not as much as he ever did for her.

"Kairi, don't look at me that way... because as long as I know that you're with me, there can't be anything more that I'd want... because I love you."

She froze at those three words. Sure, she felt... something for him, but how could he be so sure that it was love when she wasn't? And how was it that he could read her mind so clearly?

"Kairi, if you're wondering..." he squeezed her hand. "I could hear it all through your music. I could feel how miserable I have made you in these past three years... and I can't be more sorry for that..."

Kairi put on a little smile, and hugged Sora. "It's okay, Sora... as long as you're here now." For some reason, those words just made her sadness melt away.

-

The next day, Sora went back to where he came from- Julliard. He recieved a small goodbye from Kairi and his mother, but no one else.

It was hard for her to say goodbye to him, but she was sure that it was harder for his mother- having him to leave before most kids left their parents, although she could see and sense the pride that his mother was feeling.

After he had left the night before, she had pondered on how she was going to say that she loved him. She didn't just want to go up to him and say it, it would be too awkward. She also didn't want to wait for the right time, it would take far too long. And he was going to be leaving soon.

So, she rehearsed it in front of her mirror in the morning starting from six, and up until seven, when she walked over to his house to see him leave.

She saw him and his mother come out of his door, and watched him get into his car. He gave his tearful mother a loose hug, and as he opened the car door, he saw her run up to him and squeeze him in a tight embrace.

No words were spoken for a while, they just stared at each other the way that they used to, until Kairi spoke. "I love you, Sora."

It came out perfectly; better than anytime at home in front of her mirror, and she was satisfied. She watched him get into his car as the two of them waved tearfully.

And with that, he was gone. But now, she wouldn't be alone or miserable.

-

His words had stayed with Kairi for the rest of the school year.

And, now, on her graduating day, as she heard the birds chirp in the courtyard, she smiled.

The music of the birds...

The loud music of the speakers...

The rustles of feet from the people rushing to see all of their friends in the small timeframe...

The cries of joy, and the cries of sadness...

It was all for her. He was there with her, in the music in her heart- along with his.

There was nothing more she could have ever wanted.

-

(1) Regents are the state exams of New York... I don't know much about them since I don't live there, but I know that whether you get to a good college or not depends on your Regents scores. That's all I know about them, really. & I placed the Islands in near Long Island in New York because it seemed to be the most adequate place to put them.

Sorry about the short-ness... heh...

& was the ending a bit weird? I hope it wasn't, cuz I liked it very much.

As of right now, I'm debating between a sequel or a prequel, or maybe even both. But we'll have to see. It's not going to come until I reach at LEAST the middle of Welcomed Illusions- that's my next big project, after House of Melodies is finished. Several plotbunnies for the prequel hit me last night, although it's kind of going to lack SoKai & be more Sora-centric. There might be a FEW little moments, but in general, I'm aiming more of the drama genre for the prequel. It'll most likely be titled, "My Imperfect Harmony," or something to that effect. & the sequel... I guess we'll have to see about that, because right now, the plot is SO predictable that it's not even funny. But yeah, the title will most likely stay as "Face the Music."

Okay, I'm done with my talking. Thank you guys SO much for all of the reviews, I appreciate every single one of them! So please review this last chapter:D


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